tihxaxy  of  t:he  1:heolo0(cal  ^tminavy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 

PURCHASED  BY  THE 
HAMILL  MISSIONARY  FUND 


BV  3445  .H3  1914 

Hagin,  Fred  Eugene,  1869- 

1938. 
The  cross  in  Japan 


THE   CROSS   IN    JAPAN 


TRUMMING  THE  SHAMISEN 


THE  CROSS  IN  JAPAN 


A  Study  of  Achievement  and  Opportunity 


ITThiSJ^ 


BY 


FRED    EUGENE    HAGIN 


OCT  16  1914 


Of  the  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society  (  Disciples  of  Christ ) 
Tokyo,  Japan 


Illustrated 


New  York  Chicago  Toronto 

Fleming    H.    Revell    Company 

London         and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1914,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:   100  Princes  Street 


DEDICATION 

Dedicated  to  Myrtle,  with  affection  and  in  gratefiil 
memory  of  the  years  spent  together  in  college,  in 
village  pastorates,  and  on  the   foreign  mission   field. 


PREFACE 

IN  writing  the  chapters  of  this  book,  I  have  kept  in 
mind  the  ordinary  reader  at  home  and  have  tried  to 
give  him  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  whole  missionary 
situation  in  Japan  as  one  missionary  sees  it.  I  have  also 
endeavoured  to  give  information  for  those  who  are  eager 
to  know  more  of  Japan  and  of  the  Gospel's  conquests  in 
these  Islands.  The  book  has  been  written  in  the  hope  that 
praise  may  ascend  to  God  for  the  victories  attained,  and 
that  intercession  may  be  offered  for  the  final  triumph. 
That  it  might  make  some  contribution,  if  ever  so  little, 
in  stimulating  some  other  life  in  mission  endeavour,  has 
been  my  chief  inspiration  in  venturing  before  the  public  as 
an  author.  I  have  been  especially  desirous  to  influence 
young  men  and  young  women  who  ought  to  become 
Student  Volunteers  and  those,  also,  whom  God  has 
blessed  with  wealth,  who  feel  accountable  to  Him  as 
stewards.  The  great  world  problem  of  to-day  is  the 
problem  of  the  spread  of  Christianity,  that  a  growth  in 
righteousness  and  godliness  may  be  rapid  and  uni- 
versal enough  to  overtake  and  equalize  the  spread  among 
all  nations,  of  worldly  wisdom,  material  power,  discon- 
tent, and  revolutionary  ideas.  Every  contribution  of  a 
life  or  a  fortune  to  missions  is  a  direct  contribution 
towards  the  peace,  the  tranquillity,  and  the  well-being  of 
the  entire  world. 

Our  day  of  Gospel  opportunity  has  never  been  equalled 
and  no  man  can  say  that  the  day  will  be  forever  pro- 
tracted. Within  a  few  decades,  Asia  will  be  covered  with 
a  network  of  railways  which  will  bring  to  the  dwellers 
of  the  most  remote  forest,  mountain,  or  desert  oasis  all 
the  accessories  of  our  material  civilization.     The  out- 

7 


8  PREFACE 

come  will  be  that  large  sections  of  Asia,  now  dependent, 
will  become  politically  independent,  with  their  own 
schools,  their  own  riches,  their  own  industries,  their  own 
armies,  all  of  which  will  beget  a  consciousness  of  power 
mixed  with  pride,  which  may  contribute  to  a  revival  of 
idolatry  readapted  to  satisfy  Oriental  reflections  and 
traditions. 

To-day,  these  millions  are  teachable,  and  society,  for 
the  most  part,  is  in  a  plastic  condition.  The  missionary 
may  go  almost  anywhere ;  he  will  be  protected  and  unmo- 
lested and  he  will  be  given  a  respectful,  if  not  an  enthusi- 
astic, hearing.  But,  a  few  years  hence,  great  changes 
may  come !  A  few  decades  hence,  and  a  billion  in  Asia 
will  be  thoroughly  awakened,  and  if  they  awake  to  look 
upon  the  Crucified,  the  church  must  hasten  to  improve 
her  heaven-given  mission  to  exalt  her  Lord. 

Because  my  lot  has  been  cast  in  Japan,  I  have  not 
tried  to  make  the  impression  that  Japan  is  the  only  mis- 
sion field.  However,  I  am  deeply  convinced  that  Japan, 
sentimentally,  is  just  now  affecting  Asia  more  than  does 
any  other  nation,  Oriental  or  Occidental.  The  Chris- 
tianizing, therefore,  of  Japan  would  be  a  mighty  leverage 
in  the  final  Christianization  of  all  of  Asia. 

Though  I  have  not  written  a  book  to  please  my  fellow- 
missionaries,  nor  the  Japanese,  I  confess  that  my  ad- 
miration for  both  has  grown  during  the  reading  and 
correspondence  incident  to  preparing  this  manuscript. 
None  will  notice  the  defects  of  my  book  more  than  the 
missionaries,  and  yet  I  know  that  none  will  be  more 
indulgent.  The  more  I  know  of  the  history  and  en- 
vironment of  the  Japanese,  the  more  I  love  them.  The 
more  I  mix  with  them  in  the  city  and  in  the  country, 
the  more  I  see  that  the  fiction  of  a  great  divergence 
between  the  East  and  the  West  is  not  only  a  miserable 
fiction,  but  it  is  a  mischievous  and  hurtful  fiction. 

I  had  hoped  to  mention  every  person  who  had  in 
any  way  assisted  me  in  the  preparation  of  this  book.    I 


PREFACE  9 

have  preserved  the  names,  but  the  greater  number  I 
can  only  mention  en  masse. 

My  chief  debt  of  gratitude  is  to  B.  C.  Deweese,  of 
Lexington,  Kentucky,  for  reading  the  proof  sheets.  My 
debt  for  instruction  during  college  days  is  thus  enlarged 
by  this  act  of  kindness  which  is  very  much  appreciated. 
I  am  not  forgetful  that  it  was  Stephen  J.  Corey,  a  Secre- 
tary of  the  Foreign  Christian  Missionary  Society,  and 
my  wife,  who  persuaded  me  to  write  the  book.  I  thank 
them  both,  notwithstanding  the  hours  it  has  taken.  I 
am  grateful  to  J.  H.  Pettee  and  J.  G.  Dunlop  for  their 
contributed  articles,  v/ritten  by  request,  which  are  printed 
in  the  Appendix.  The  map  of  Japan  is  the  map  pub- 
lished by  the  "  Welcome  Society  of  Japan."  Special 
permission  to  use  it  was  granted  by  K.  Oshida,  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Society.  I  most  respectfully  acknowledge 
my  obligations  to  him  as  well  as  to  Baron  E.  Shibuzawa, 
a  Vice-President  of  the  Society,  for  his  intervention  on 
my  behalf.  In  soliciting  information,  perhaps  I  have 
taxed  no  one  more  than  I  have  Gilbert  Bowles.  I  will 
long  remember  his  uniform  kindness.  Some  of  the  pic- 
tures are  from  photographs  donated  by  the  Methodist 
Publishing  House  of  Tokyo,  and  to  them  I  acknowledge 
my  indebtedness.  The  files  of  the  Japan  Evangelist 
and  the  issues  of  The  Christian  Movement  have  fur- 
nished much  useful  information  which,  for  the  most 
part,  I  have  acknowledged  in  footnotes.  I  am  especially 
grateful  to  John  L.  Bearing,  editor  of  The  Christian 
Movement  in  Japan,  for  furnishing  the  folded  table  of 
statistics  to  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 

I  have  left  off  honorary  titles  because  they  do  not 
appeal  to  the  ordinary  man.  It  should  be  honour  enough 
for  any  missionary  to  speak  of  him  as  we  speak  of  Wm. 
Carey,  David  Livingstone,  Alexander  DufT,  John  R. 
Mott,  Robt.  E.  Speer,  or  A.  McLean. 

Fred  E.  Hagin. 
Tokyo. 


CONTENTS 

PART  FIRST.     THE  FIELD 

I. 

Japan  Our  Neighbour 

17 

II. 

The  Empire  and  Its  People 

25 

III. 

Changes  and  Transformations 

37 

IV. 

Village  and  Country  Life 

45 

V. 

The  Social  and  Family  Structure 

53 

VI. 

The  Prevalence  of  Idolatry    . 
PART  SECOND.    THE  MISSIONARY 

61 

I. 

What  the  Missionary  Has  Done    . 

.      69 

II. 

The  Unfailing  Friend 

79 

III. 

Joys  and  Rewards  of  the  Service    . 

87 

IV. 

The  Missionary's  Home  Life   . 

97 

V. 

Touring  Through  Village  and  Byways     107 

VI. 

Trials  and  Discouragements    . 

•     117 

VII. 

Furloughs  and  Journeys  by  Sea 

•     125 

VIII. 

The  Kind  of  Missionaries  Needed  . 

135 

IX. 

Some  Ways  of  Service 

143 

X. 

A  Few  Well-known  Missionaries  . 
PART  THIRD.    THE  KINGDOM 

153 

I. 

The  Coming  of  the  Kingdom    . 

163 

II. 

The  Growth  of  the  Kingdom  . 

•     173 

III. 

The  Winning  of  Souls 

.     183 

IV. 

Illustrations  of  Christian  Fidelity 

•     193 

V. 

Christian  Forces  at  Work 

•     203 

VI. 

Different  Missions  at  Work    . 

.    213 

11 


12 


CONTENTS 


VII.  Christian  Education  .... 

VIII.  Unity  and  Co-operation 

IX.  The  Converts  and  the  Churches    . 

X.  Some  Prominent  Japanese  Christians 

XL  Some  Incidents  and  Experiences     . 

XII.  The  Future  of  Christianity    . 


225 
235 

245 
255 
265 

273 


PART  FOURTH.    THE  OPPORTUNITY 

I.  The  Strategic  Importance  of  Japan 

II.  The  Wide-Open  Door  . 

HI.  Problems  and  Difficulties 

IV.  Claiais  for  Sympathy  . 

V.  Japan's  Need  of  Christ 

VI.  Our  Ability  and  Responsibility 

Appendix 


B. 


D. 


F. 
G. 

H. 


A  List  of  Books  Upon  Japan,  Written  by  Mis- 
sionaries (Part  II,  Chap.  I) 

Baptisms  by  Protestant  Missionaries  Previ- 
ous TO  1872  (Part  III,  Chap.  I). 

Sunday  School  Work  in  Japan  (Part  III, 
Chap.  V) 

The  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  En- 
deavour (Part  III,  Chap.  V) 

The  Conference  of  Federated  Missions  (Part 
III,  Chap.  VIII) 

The  Imperial  Oath  of  1869  (Part  IV,  Chap.  II) 

Governmental  Grants  to  Christian  Institu- 
tions (Part  IV,  Chap.  II) 

Mission  Work  in  Korea,  Formosa,  the  Loo 
Choo  Islands,  and  Among  the  Ainu 

Table  of  Mission  Statistics  for  1913  . 
Index         


283 
291 
301 

313 
323 
335 

345 

347 

349 

350 

352 

354 
355 

356 

359 
360 
361 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Trumming  the  Shamisen 


and 


Third-Class  Passenger  Car  \ 

On  the  Way  to  Worship  the  Fox  God  \ 

A  Model  Japanese  Family  .... 

Image  of  Buddha  in  the  Mountains       ) 
Bronze  Buddha  in  Ueno  Park,  Tokyo    ) 

A  Sunday  School  in  Kofu    ) 
A  Sunday  School  in  Tokyo  )              '        * 
Two  Missionaries.  Two  Japanese  Preachers, 
Organist 

A  Rented  Preaching  Place  at  Chiba         ) 
A  Church  Building  in  the  Winter  Time  j 

Niju  Bridge,  Entrance  to  Imperial  Palace    ) 
Department  of  Justice,  Tokyo  j 

St.  Luke's  Hospital,  Tokyo       ) 
Chapel  at  St.  Luke's  r 

One  of  the  Operating  Rooms  ) 

Faculty  of  Doshisha  University,  Kyoto     . 

Miss  Una  Tsuda  in  Her  Office  at  the  Women 
English  Institute,  Tokyo      .... 

Some  of  the  Five  Hundred  Boys  at  Aoyama 

Okayama  Orphanage  and  Its  Children     . 

A  Buddhist's  Grave 

Gateway  into  Asakusa  Temple        ) 
Main  Shrine  at  Shinshoji  Temple  f 

Selections  from  Buddhist  Scriptures  ) 
A  Buddhist  Preaching  Hall                  \     ' 
Map  of  Japan 


FACING 
FACE 

Title 


38 

54 
62 

90 

108 
112 

128 

144 

174 

194 
226 
246 
274 

302 

326 

344 


NOTE  ON  THE  PRONUNCIATION  OF 
JAPANESE  WORDS 

Sound  the  vowels  and  diphthongs  as  in  Italian,  that  is  (approx- 
imately), 

a  as  in  "  fa.ther." 


e 

" 

' 

men. 

i 

" 

"   " 

police. 

» 

o 

" 

((   1' 

for." 

u 

as 

in  ' 

"  bush. 

» 

ai 

" 

the 

"  y" 

of" 

my." 

ei 

" 

the 

"  ay  " 

of 

'  may.' 

au 

" 

the 

"  ow ' 

'  of 

"  cow. 

Distinguish  long  vowels  from  short,  as  in  Latin;  thus  tori, 
"bird,"  but  tori,  "street;"  zutsu,  "[one,  etc.]  at  a  time,"  but 
zutsu,  "  headache." 

Sound  the  consonants  as  in  English,  noting  only  that  g  never 
has  the  "  j"  sound.  At  the  beginning  of  a  word  it  is  pronounced 
as  in  "give;"  in  the  middle  it  has  the  sound  of  English  ng. 
Note,  too,  that  z  before  "  u"  is  pronounced  as  dz,  thus  Kozu 
(ko-dsu). 

Consonants  written  double  are  distinctly  pronounced  double,  as 
in  Italian.  Thus  amma,  "a  shampooer,"  soitnds  quite  different 
from  ama,  "a  nun."  (Compare  such  English  words  as  "out- 
ness," "  shot-tower.") 

There  is  little  if  any  tonic  accent,  all  syllables,  except  such  as 
have  long  quantity,  being  pronounced  evenly  and  lightly,  as  in 
French.  For  instance,  the  word  ama  givoi  above  sounds  almost 
exactly  like  the  French  zvord  "  amas,"  and  would  not  be  under- 
stood if  pronounced  like  English  "  armour." — From  "  Things 
Japanese,"  by  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain. 


PART   ONE 

THE    FIELD 


I 

JAPAN    OUR    NEIGHBOUR 


Our  country  was  the  first  Western  friend  to  Japan,  and  means 
to  be  the  last. — Andrew  Carnegie,  Founders'  Day,  1912,  p.  36. 

At  every  moment  of  our  lives,  we  should  be  trying  to  find  out 
not  in  what  we  differ  from  other  people,  but  in  what  we  agree 
with  them. — Ruskin,  "  Sesame  and  Lilies." 

Geographically,  Japan  and  America  are  neighbours.  Our 
shores  are  washed  by  the  same  great  sea.  The  Pacific  is  happily 
named  in  that  it  characterizes  the  friendly  relations  of  our 
respective  countries. — Viscount  Sutemi  Chinda,  Japanese  Am- 
bassador to  the  United  States. 

There  is  no  danger  of  war,  but  there  is  grave  danger  because 
the  war  debts  are  26,000,000,000  dollars.  One-third  of  all  the 
money  of  the  world  is  due  on  the  war  debt  of  Europe  alone. — 
David  Starr  Jordan. 

The  best  gift  the  New  Year  could  bring  the  American  people 
would  be  a  strict  obedience  to  the  divine  injunction,  "Love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself." 
— Governor  Cole  L.  Blease,  Christian  Herald,  January  3,  1912. 

The  old  isolation  is  gone  forever  for  every  people;  and  there 
is  no  greater  obligation  upon  every  nation  to-day  than  to  try  to 
understand,  and  to  enter  into  sympathy  with,  that  which  is  finest 
and  best  in  every  other  nation. — Seth  Low,  Hudson-Fulton  Cele- 
bration, p.  44. 

Off  the  coast  of  Asia,  'mid  the  mighty  ocean, 

Lies  an  Island  Kingdom,  strangely  fair  and  bright; 
E'er  the  rising  sunbeams  touch  the  Asian  Highlands 

All  her  isles  are  glowing  in  the  morning  light. 
First  to  catch  the  radiance  of  a  brighter  sunrise, 

Island  of  the  Morning,  beautiful  Japan. 
— William  E.  Griffis,  Japan  Evangelist,  Vol.  X,  p.  20. 

What  then  is  our  neighbour?  Thou  hast  regarded  his  thought, 
his  feeling  as  somehow  different  from  thine;  thou  hast  said, 
"A  pain  in  him  is  not  like  a  pain  in  me,  but  something  far 
easier  to  bear."  He  seems  to  thee  a  little  less  living  than  thou; 
his  life  is  dim,  it  is  cold,  it  is  a  pale  fire  beside  thine  own 
burning  desires.  Thou  hast  made  of  him  a  thing,  no  self  at 
all.  Have  done  with  this  illusion.  .  .  .  Pain  is  pain,  joy  is  joy, 
everywhere,  even  as  in  thee. — Josiah  Royce. 


JAPAN  OUR  NEIGHBOUR 

FAR  beyond  the  spot  where  the  sun  sinks  nightly 
into  the  waves  of  the  Pacific,  and  hundreds  of 
miles  below  a  spectator's  line  of  vision  who  may 
stand  upon  the  highest  hill  about  San  Francisco,  are 
situated  the  islands  of  Japan.  A  view  from  the  sea 
is  a  vision  of  emerald  hills  and  rugged  mountains  whose 
summits  are  hidden  by  sporting  clouds.  The  ocean's 
waves  eternally  pound  against  the  granite  promontories, 
copious  rains  keep  the  mountain  streams  fretting,  and 
under  a  glaring  sunshine  are  luxuriate  mighty  forests, 
fields  of  grain,  evergreen  trees,  and  blooming  flowers. 

In  the  lowlands  and  mountain  valleys  are  populous 
cities,  numerous  towns,  and  millions  of  homes.  Near  his 
home  the  farmer  toils  with  spade  and  sickle.  Within 
his  home  patiently  labours  the  artisan  who  has  filled 
the  world  with  his  lacquer,  china,  and  tapestries.  At 
daybreak  the  daring  fisher  sets  the  bow  of  his  fragile 
craft  homeward,  laden  with  the  spoils  of  the  sea.  Every- 
where are  well-educated,  well-dressed,  and  attentive  of- 
ficials who  respect  the  law  and  distribute  the  blessings 
of  good  government.  Everywhere  are  troops  of  children 
who  pre-empt  the  streets  and,  rain  or  shine,  are  busy 
at  laughter  and  play.  Everywhere  are  ambitious  youths 
who  would  drop  a  decade  out  of  their  lives  for  a  uni- 
versity training  or  a  sojourn  in  England  or  the  United 
States.  And  everywhere  are  coy  maidens  who  stoop 
and  shy  while  they  lift  the  long  sleeves  of  their  beautiful 
kimonos  to  their  eyes  of  jet,  that  they  may  blush  and 
whisper  within  the  shadows. 

These  people  constitute  the  real  Japan.     They  live 

17 


18  THE  FIELD 

more  simply  and  economically  than  we,  they  are  a  little 
shorter  in  stature,  a  little  different  in  colour,  their  reli- 
gions and  their  customs  are  different  from  ours,  but 
they  are  our  neighbours. 

A  century  ago  the  Japanese  were  about  as  well  known 
as  the  hypothetical  inhabitants  of  Mars.  But  time,  prog- 
ress, and  the  remaking  of  maps  has  eliminated  the  ocean, 
has  brought  the  West  to  the  East,  and  has  made  the 
Pacific  Ocean  the  grand  terminal  station  of  a  western 
movement  which  has  been  gaining  in  celerity  and  im- 
portance for  two  thousand  years.  Providence  has  de- 
termined that  Japan  should  lie  on  the  far  eastern  border, 
and  that  the  United  States  should  close  up  the  gap  to  the 
westward.  This  magnificent  boulevard,  which  history 
has  been  constructing,  is  therefore  in  the  act  of  com- 
pletion. This  boulevard  is  a  highway  for  the  nations 
upon  which  will  speed  the  commerce,  the  travel,  and  the 
intelligence  of  all  people,  and  through  which  peace,  good- 
will, and  neighbourly  feeling  shall  pulsate  with  the  same 
warmth  and  constancy  as  the  sun  bathes  the  earth  with 
his  torrents  of  light. 

Notwithstanding  our  western  origin,  the  front-door  of 
the  United  States  has  opened  towards  the  Orient.  Cross 
over  a  line  drawn  from  the  coast  of  Maine  to  Porto 
Rico,  and  you  may  search  the  Atlantic  and  Indian 
Oceans,  all  the  vast  stretches  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa, 
and  you  will  not  find  a  section  of  land  or  a  port  of  call 
subject  to  United  States  sovereignty.  But  go  westward 
from  this  imaginary  line  and  you  will  find  Guantanamo, 
the  Panama  Canal,  Tutuila,  and  the  Philippines.  Alas- 
ka's islands  stretch  in  a  long  arm  westwards.  West- 
wards passes  an  ocean  cable  from  San  Francisco 
through  Honolulu,  Wake  Island,  and  Guam  to  the  Philip- 
pines. At  Guam  a  line  branches  to  Japan.  Territory 
added  both  to  Japan  and  the  United  States  has  made 
them  neighbours.  Guam  is  1,342  miles  from  Yokohama 
and  1,506  miles  from  Manila.     On  the  north  there  is 


JAPAN  OUR  NEIGHBOUR  19 

but  a  stretch  of  a  few  miles  between  our  possessions. 
Wireless  cables  from  San  Francisco  without  relays  have 
been  picked  up  in  Japan.  The  Federal  Telegraph  Com- 
pany is  already  operating  a  wireless  system  for  com- 
mercial purposes  between  Honolulu  and  San  Francisco, 
and  the  system  will  doubtless  be  extended  to  the  Orient. 
The  steamship  "  Siberia  "  made  the  trip  from  Yokohama 
to  San  Francisco  in  ten  days  and  ten  hours. 

Commercially,  as  well  as  geographically,  Japan  and 
the  United  States  are  being  drawn  into  the  closest  of 
ties.  Yokohama,  which  is  the  port  of  call  for  Tokyo, 
after  London,  Paris,  and  Berlin,  ranks  fourth  in  the 
consular  receipts  remitted  to  the  United  States  Treas- 
ury. Though  Europe  is  composed  of  many  nations,  and 
China  is  a  world  in  itself,  Japan's  exports  to  the  United 
States  exceed  the  exports  to  Europe  or  to  China.  Uncle 
Sam's  payment  to  Japan  last  year  for  tea,  silk,  camphor, 
lacquer,  and  other  importations  was  $80,607,469.  Ja- 
pan's two  great  fields  for  export  are  China  and  the 
American  continent. 

The  general  sentiment  of  the  people  in  Japan  is  one 
of  good-will  and  admiration  for  the  United  States. 
Among  schoolboys,  Washington,  Franklin,  Lincoln,  and 
Roosevelt  are  the  best  known  and  most  respected  of  for- 
eigners. The  tie  in  Japan  that  binds  the  pupil  to  his 
teacher  is  very  strong.  The  Japanese  student  carries 
a  life  debt  of  gratitude  for  all  who  have  contributed 
to  his  education.  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  thou- 
sands in  Japan  to-day  have  been  educated  in  America. 
Among  them  are  leading  teachers,  editors,  authors,  and 
officials  of  state.  The  Government  issues  railway  time- 
tables in  the  English  language  and  has  written  the  names 
of  every  railway  station  in  English  and  Japanese. 

It  is  an  uncommon  thing  for  the  Emperor  to  issue  a 
statement  over  his  own  name.  His  messages  to  Parlia- 
ment are  seldom  more  than  two  or  three  brief  para- 
graphs.    Notwithstanding  the  rarity  and  brevity  of  the 


20  THE  FIELD 

Imperial  messages,  the  late  Emperor,  on  several  occa- 
sions, sent  words  of  friendship  to  the  United  States. 
Preceding  the  visit  and  royal  entertainment  of  our  fleet 
in  the  fall  of  1908,  the  Emperor  issued  an  Imperial 
Rescript  to  his  own  people  and  cabled  to  America  the 
following  words :  "  The  historic  relations  of  good  under- 
standing and  genuine  friendship  with  the  United  States, 
I  account  as  a  valued  heritage  of  my  reign,  and  it  shall 
be  in  the  future,  as  it  has  been  in  the  past,  my  constant 
aim  and  desire  to  weld  the  ties  of  amity  uniting  the  two 
countries  in  these  indissoluble  bonds  of  good  neighbour- 
hood and  perfect  accord." 

The  historic  relations  between  Japan  and  the  United 
States  have  been  intimate  and  friendly.  Japan  has  be- 
stowed medals  and  honours  upon  many  foreigners,  but 
her  first  monument,  and  for  years  her  only  one,  was 
erected  in  honour  of  an  American.  Every  ship  that 
drops  anchor  at  Yokohama  passes  close  to  the  little 
bay  with  a  sandy  beach,  where  nestles  the  sleepy  little 
town  of  Kurihama.  North  of  the  town  is  a  monument, 
erected  by  Japanese,  which  stands  some  thirty-four  feet 
in  height.  Upon  it,  carved  both  in  English  and  Japanese, 
are  these  words :  "  This  monument  commemorates  the 
first  arrival  of  Commodore  Perry,  Ambassador  from 
the  United  States  of  America,  who  landed  at  this  place 
July  14th,  1853." 

It  was  the  following  year,  on  March  31,  that  Japan 
concluded  her  first  foreign  treaty,  negotiated  by  Com- 
modore Perry  and  sealed  by  the  Emperor's  sanction. 
Townsend  Harris  was  Japan's  first  instructor  in  modern 
diplomacy.  The  times  were  troublesome.  There  were 
no  precedents  and  no  time-honoured  formalities  to  guide 
these  beginnings  of  diplomatic  exchange.  To  add  to  the 
embarrassment,  Henry  C.  J.  Heusken,  Secretary  of  the 
United  States  legation,  was  assasinated  in  i860,  and 
three  years  later  the  legation  was  set  on  fire.  Disturb- 
ances increased  until  all  the  legations  were  removed  to 


JAPAN  OUR  NEIGHBOUR  21 

Yokohama  for  safety.  A  Japanese  writer,  in  speaking 
of  these  times,  says  that  it  was  due  to  the  "  patient  good- 
heartedness  "  of  Townsend  Harris,  "  and  self-sacrificing 
enthusiasm  of  Americans "  that  saved  "  Japan  from 
the  international  rupture  with  the  European  powers."  * 

William  H.  Seward,  who  was  in  Japan  in  1870,  was 
the  first  foreigner  of  distinction  to  be  received  by  the 
late  Emperor.  When  General  Grant  came  a  few  years 
later,  the  Emperor  for  the  first  time  shook  hands  with 
a  foreigner.!  It  was  General  Grant  who  urged  Japan 
to  renounce  her  commercial  treaties  for  the  adoption  of 
the  tariff  system.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  long  interview 
he  said :  *'  Japan  has  peculiar  claims  upon  the  respect 
and  sympathy  of  mankind,  and  if  she  would  assert  her 
sovereign  rights,  she  would  find  that  her  cause  met  the 
approval  of  mankind."  During  the  war  with  Russia, 
the  United  States  was  sponser  for  Japan's  subjects  and 
interests  in  Russia  and  Manchuria.  The  peace  docu- 
ments which  brought  the  war  to  a  close  were  signed  at 
Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire.  The  United  States  was 
the  first  to  withdraw  her  legation  from  Seoul,  and  the 
first  to  sign  the  recently  revised  treaties  with  Japan. 

There  is  therefore  a  historic  background  of  mutual 
trust  and  unselfish  dealing  which  gives  hope  for  the 
future.  Though  not  bound  by  ties  of  blood  to  Japan, 
there  is  every  reason  why  the  relations  of  the  United 
States  should  be  as  cordial  with  Japan  as  with  England. 
Japan's  commercial  expansion,  her  independence,  her 
advance  in  education,  her  patriotism  are  truly  American. 
In  the  Spanish  war  "  not  a  single  reverse  or  disaster 
occurred.  Not  a  single  soldier,  gun,  colour,  nor  inch 
of  ground  was  captured  by  the  enemy."  $  On  a  larger 
scale,  Japan  in  the  Russian  war,  on  land  and  sea,  won 

♦Masuji  Miyakawa,  "Life  of  Japan,"  pp.  147,  150,  288. 
tjohn    Russell    Young,    "Around    the    World    with    General 
Grant,"  pp.  529,  583. 
+  Gen.  Nelson  A.  Miles,  in  Cosmopolitan. 


m  THE  FIELD 

an  uninterrupted  series  of  victories.  As  neighbours, 
Japan  and  the  United  States  have  each  much  to  respect 
in  the  other.  As  neighbours,  both  have  a  big  contribu- 
tion to  make  to  the  Orient.  As  neighbours,  both  can 
best  develop  their  commercial  advantages  in  the  unde- 
veloped fields  bordering  the  Pacific.  As  neighbours, 
both  can  best  escape  the  crushing  burdens  of  militarism 
and  pass  on  to  their  children  the  blessings  and  richness 
of  peace. 

Seldom  have  words  more  eloquent  and  assuring  ever 
been  uttered  than  the  words  of  Baron  Uchida,  Japan's 
former  ambassador  to  the  United  States.  It  was  at  a 
banquet  in  New  York  City,  in  celebration  of  the  new 
treaty,  that  the  Baron  said :  "  There  have  been  wars  of 
the  Cross  and  the  Crescent,  of  the  Red  Rose  and  the 
White,  but  the  Sun  and  the  Stars  have  never  quarrelled 
in  their  courses,  nor  shall  the  two  flags  which  bear  those 
celestial  emblems  ever  be  carried  in  the  hands  of  op- 
posing armies.  It  is  unthinkable,  impossible.  .  .  .  Our 
ambition  is  not  to  see  our  flag  '  dominate  the  Pacific/ 
but  to  see  the  firmament  that  arches  over  that  ocean 
hung  with  the  mingled  splendours  of  our  two  banners — 
the  Star-spangled  ensign  of  America  and  the  Sun  flag 
of  Japan.  .  .  .  There  is  room  in  the  spacious  purposes 
of  history  for  the  glory  of  all." 


II 

THE   EMPIRE  AND   ITS   PEOPLE 


It  is  vain  to  expect  governments  to  act  continuously  on  any 
other  ground  than  national  interest.  They  have  no  right  to  do 
so,  being  agents  and  not  principals. — Captain  A.  T.  Mahan, 
"  The  Problem  of  Asia,"  p.  187. 

There  shall  be  a  perfect,  permanent,  and  universal  peace,  and 
a  sincere  and  cordial  amity,  between  the  United  States  of 
America  on  the  one  part  and  the  Empire  of  Japan  on  the  other, 
and  between  their  people,  respectively,  without  exception  of 
•persons  or  places. — Article  I  of  Perry's  Treaty  with  Japan  on 
March  31,  1854. 

The  Pacific  Ocean  consists  of  over  thirty-four  per  cent  of  the 
world's  surface,  and  not  only  do  more  than  one-half  of  the 
human  race  rest  somewhere  upon  its  littoral,  but  two-thirds  of 
the  undeveloped  resources  of  the  earth  are  in  the  lands  upon 
whose  shores  its  waters  break. — Homer  T.  Lea,  "  Valor  of 
Ignorance,"  p.  189. 

Slowly  but  surely  the  nation  which  the  United  States  first 
won  peacefully  from  her  seclusion  is  fitting  herself  for  the 
master  work  of  the  twentieth  century.  .  .  .  This  is  nothing  less 
than  to  act  as  the  mediator  between  East  and  West,  as  recon- 
ciler of  the  Oriental  and  Occidental  civilizations.  For  this 
Humanity  waits.  It  can  come  about  only  by  mutual  moral 
betterment. — William  E.  Griffis. 

Brave  little  people,  of  large  aims,  you  bow 
Too  often  and  too  low  before  the  Past; 
You  sit  too  long  in  worship  of  the  dead. 
Yet  have  you  risen,  open-eyed,  to  greet 
The  great  material  Present;  now  salute 

The  Great  Future,  blazing  its  bold  trail 
Through  old  traditions.     Leave  your  dead  to  sleep 

In  quiet  peace  with  God.    Let  your  concern 
Be  with  the  living,  and  yet  unborn; 
Bestow  on  them  your  thoughts,  and  waste  no  time 
In  costly  honours  to  insensate  dust. 
Unlock  the  doors  of  usefulness;  and  lead 
Your  lovely  daughters  forth  to  larger  fields 
Away  from  jungles  of  the  ancient  sin. 
But  oh,  the  sorrozu  of  the  undertone 
The  zvail  of  helpless  weeping  in  the  dawn 
From  lips  that  smiled  through  gilded  bars  at  night. 
— Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 


II 

THE  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PEOPLE 

IN  the  first  edition  of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 
"  some  twenty-five  words  suffice  to  tell  the  world 
all  that  anybody  cared  to  know  about  Japan."  * 
Since  then  an  immense  library  has  been  written  about 
Japan,  and  much  of  it  is  already  out  of  date.  A  mis- 
sionary, some  years  ago,  wrote  home,  "  This  is  a  nation 
living  without  pure  water,  soap,  milk,  butter,  apples, 
potatoes,  meat,  chairs,  tables,  and  music."  Not  long  ago 
there  were  no  railways  in  Japan.  Now  there  are  6,008 
miles. t  Besides  there  are  telegraph  lines,  telephones, 
and  a  fine  postal  system,  which  will  collect  bills,  deliver 
advertisements,  give  interest  on  deposits,  and  deliver 
by  parcel  post  anything  from  a  broomstick  to  a  bushel 
basket.  The  railways  take  every  precaution  to  preserve 
life.  No  passenger  steps  on  a  track,  and  at  all  country 
cross-roads  a  woman  stands  with  her  red  or  white  flag. 
At  most  large  towns  one  can  purchase  from  the  car- 
window,  lunches,  fruit,  milk,  tea,  or  liquors. 

Japan's  main  area  consists  of  many  islands,  which 
reach  like  an  elongated  quarter  moon  from  southern 
Saghalien  to  Formosa.  The  main  island  looks  small  on 
the  map,  but  has  a  stretch  of  704  miles  from  Tokyo  to 
the  western  end,  and  about  as  far  to  the  northern  end. 
Besides  the  main  islands,  there  are  the  Kurile,  Loochoo, 

♦Price  Collier. 

t  In  addition  to  the  mileage  in  Japan  proper,  where  the  tracks 
are  on  the  three-foot-six-inch  gauge,  there  are  726  miles  in 
Korea  and  606  miles  in  Manchuria.  On  the  Continent  Japan 
has  adopted  the  standard  gauge.  There  has  been  talk  of  widen- 
ing the  trackage  in  Japan,  but  the  execution  of  the  project 
would  entail  an  expense  of  several  hundred  million  yen. 

25 


26  THE  FIELD 

Pescadore,  and  Bonin  groups.  Including  Formosa,  there 
is  an  area  of  162,372  square  miles,  more  than  half  of 
\^  which  is  in  the  main  island  called  Hondo.  The  popula- 
tion is  53,000,000,  and  has  increased  at  an  amazing  rate 
since  the  beginning  of  the  Meiji  era.  Korea,  which  was 
annexed  in  1910,  has  an  area  of  80,000  square  miles  and 
a  population  of  13,797,545,  all  told.  Japan  has  spent 
vast  sums  of  money  both  in  Korea  and  in  her  leased 
areas  in  southern  Manchuria.  In  Korea,  railways,  tele- 
graph lines,  currency  reform,  and  hospitals  for  every 
province  have  been  projected.  Dalney,  in  the  Liotung 
peninsula,  has  become  a  large  city  built  in  modern  style. 
Tokyo,  the  capital  city,  as  seen  on  the  globe,  is  just 
opposite  the  region  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.  It  is  the  fifth 
city  of  the  world  in  size,  climbing  up  to  the  three  million 
mark.  It  has  almost  every  modern  convenience  save 
sewerage  and  adequate  fire  protection.  Next  to  Tokyo 
is  Osaka,  the  great  manufacturing  centre.  Kyoto,  a 
former  capital,  is  a  beautiful  city  near  the  mountains, 
with  many  famous  temples.  At  the  magnificent  Buddhist, 
temple  near  the  station,  one  can  see  the  immense  cables, 
five  inches  in  diameter,  made  from  women's  hair  con- 
tributed for  the  temple's  construction.  Nagoya  is  a  great 
city  which  manufactures  considerable  china  for  Amer- 
icans. Nagasaki,  Kobe,  and  Yokohama  are  noted  ports 
v^pf  call,  always  visited  by  tourists. 

One  day,  in  far  less  time  than  it  takes  to  make  the 
statement,  I  noticed  at  a  street  corner  in  Tokyo  three 
little  maids,  each  with  a  babe  on  her  back ;  two  boys  on 
stilts;  several  students;  two  girls,  one  with  a  scarlet 
belt  and  her  companion  in  a  purple  silk  dress;  a  one- 
legged  man  on  crutches ;  numerous  men  and  boys  pulling 
carts;  a  man  blowing  a  horn  selling  bean  curd;  three 
bantam  hens  and  their  lordly  rooster  disputing  the  right 
of  way;  a  boy  on  a  bicycle  delivering  for  a  big  depart- 
ment store ;  three  heavy  loads  of  old  lumber,  each  pulled 
by  a  man;  an  old  woman  bent  with  age;  a  man  with 


THE  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PEOPLE  27 

a  stiff  neck;  a  ragpicker,  who  hustled  out  of  the  way 
of  an  imported  auto  which  dashed  past.  Boys  and 
girls  stand  at  the  street  corners  selling  papers ;  cigar 
stores  have  just  put  in  their  appearance;  and  sometimes 
the  streets  are  blocked  by  people  reading  the  returns 
from  the  wrestling  matches  just  as  Americans  crowd 
under  some  newspaper's  baseball  bulletin. 

One  is  never  out  of  sight  of  mountains  in  Japan,  and 
hence  but  fourteen  per  cent  of  Japan's  land  is  under] 
cultivation,  whereas  England  has  twenty-three  per  cent,] 
and  France  fifty-five  per  cent.  The  cultivated  areas  are 
in  the  lowlands,  hugging  close  to  the  sea,  or  in  the 
rapidly  rising  valley  lands  which  always  have  their 
rivers  and  streams.  These  streams  are  harnessed  by 
a  well-planned  system  of  irrigation.  Descending  rap- 
idly, the  waters  are  dispersed  here  and  there  into  the 
terraces  or  lower  flats  for  the  thirsty  rice  fields.  Of  late 
the  more  accessible  forests  have  been  cut  either  for 
lumber  or  charcoal.  America  is  receiving  Japan's  white 
oak  and  railway  ties  by  the  shipload.  "  Ofiicial  figures 
show  that  sixty-eight  per  cent  of  all  Japan's  territory- 
is  still  covered  with  forests  or  is  being  cultivated  in 
the  interests  of  afforestation."  * 

Japan's  main  source  of  income  is  her  agriculture.  In 
an  exceptional  year  like  1912,  the  estimated  rice  crop 
was  55,293,945  koku  (one  koku  equals  5.13  bushels). 
Besides  her  rice,  Japan  has  a  considerable  income  from 
her  tea,  her  silk,  and  some  income  from  tobacco  and 
camphor.  Some  silver,  copper,  gold,  and  iron  is  found, 
as  well  as  petroleum  and  large  deposits  of  coal.  Vast 
fortunes  could  be  made  from  her  fish,  if  properly  cured 
and  canned  in  such  a  way  as  to  suit  Western  tastes.  As 
fruit  of  all  kinds  grows  in  abundance,  this  likewise  could 
be  made  a  source  of  considerable  revenue. 

The  climate  is  damp,  and  there  are  many  rainy  and 
cloudy  days.    Japan  reaches  from  the  far  north  to  the 

*  Japan  Chronicle,  May  6,  1911. 


28  THE  FIELD 

far  south,  and  hence  she  has  all  the  extremes  of  tem- 
perature. In  north  and  northwest  Japan  the  snow 
reaches  great  depth.  In  these  towns  neighbours  visit  one 
another  by  digging  tunnels  through  the  snow  in  the 
streets,  and  the  pedestrians  above  can  look  down  into 
second-story  windows.  Every  summer  there  are  one 
or  two  destructive  typhoons.  Every  few  weeks,  light 
sleepers  in  the  capital  are  aroused  by  a  genuine  earth- 
quake which  makes  timbers  creak  and  the  crockery  rattle. 
As  there  are  many  volcanoes  in  Japan,  there  are  also 
many  hot  springs,  some  of  which  have  great  medicinal 
^yalue.  Near  Karuizawa,  where  hundreds  of  mission- 
aries usually  retire  from  the  heat  of  the  plains  for  a 
few  weeks  during  the  summer,  is  the  noted  volcano, 
Asama.  The  eruptions  of  smoke  and  steam  from  this 
mountain  are  daily  seen  ascending,  sometimes  to  the 
height  of  a  mile  or  more. 

When  we  consider  that  the  Japanese  are  trying  to  live 
from  a  cultivated  area  of  half  the  state  of  Ohio,  it  is  no 
wonder  that  the  people  are  poor  and  heavily  taxed  to  hold 
their  place  as  a  first-class  power.  Everything  is  taxed 
that  is  taxable.  There  is  a  land  tax,  a  house  tax,  an 
inheritance  tax,  and  an  income  tax  on  yearly  incomes 
which  amount  to  $200  and  above.  There  is  a  tax  on 
merchants,  artisans'  shops,  bicycles,  autos,  wagons,  carts, 
railway  tickets,  street  car  tickets,  receipts,  deeds,  and 
real  estate  documents.  Patent  medicines  are  taxed  ten 
per  cent.  Besides  these  sources  of  income,  the  govern- 
ment has  taken  over  most  oi  the  railroads  and  likewise 
has  a  monopoly  on  salt,  camphor,  tobacco,  and  telephone 
and  telegraph  lines.  A  farmer  pays  a  yearly  tax  of 
eight  per  cent  on  the  value  of  his  rice  land.  "  With 
regard  to  the  capitalist  landowner,  it  is  estimated  that 
if  he  has  a  gross  income  of  Yi,70O  (£176)  per  annum, 
his  taxes  amount  to  about  Y900  (£90)."  * 

There  are  some  multimillionaires  in  Japan,  but  the  pos- 

*  Arthur  Lloyd,  "  Everyday  Japan,"  p.  133. 


THE  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PEOPLE  29 

sessions  of  the  average  home  are  very  small.  The  Jiji 
newspaper  estimates  that  there  are  only  i,oi8  persons  in 
Japan  who  are  worth  more  than  $250,000.*  The  heavy 
taxation,  coupled  with  a  population  growing  rapidly  with 
scant  resources,  contain  problems  both  serious  and  per- 
plexing for  statesmen. 

The  government  is  a  constitutional  monarchy,  where 
the  main  power  has  rested  since  1889  with  the  Em- 
peror, his  Elder  Statesmen  and  Privy  Council.  The 
Cabinet  of  ten  members  is  selected  by  the  Premier,  who 
is  chosen  by  the  Emperor.  The  Houses  of  Parliament 
consist  of  379  members  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
and  the  House  of  Peers,  which  includes  "  16  princes 
of  the  blood,  13  princes,  29  marquises,  17  counts,  17 
viscounts,  56  barons,  172  Imperial  nominees  (for  dis- 
tinguished services  in  war  and  peace),  and  45  repre- 
sentatives of  the  highest  taxpayers."  f  The  courts  have 
competent  judges,  who  are  allotted  considerable  power 
by  law.  There  is  no  jury  system  and  no  system  of 
political  control  by  parties  as  has  been  developed  in  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States.  Though  bureaucratic  in 
form,  the  government  has  always  had  the  best  interests 
of  the  people  at  heart.  The  late  Emperor,  before  his 
death,  contributed  $750,000  toward  the  poor  and  charity 
hospitals,  which  has  been  augmented  by  other  donors 
until  it  has  grown  to  $13,000,000. 

Japan  is  greatly  hindered  in  her  educational  and  com- 
meircial  efforts  by  the  use  of  the  Chinese  system  of 
ideographs.  Some  eight  to  ten  thousand  of  these  char- 
acters are  in  use  in  the  daily  newspapers.  A  schoolboy 
must  waste  years  of  his  time  to  memorize  and  to  be  able 
to  write  these  characters  with  a  brush.  Without  con- 
stant practice,  even  Japanese  forget  them.  Besides  these 
Chinese  picture  words,  there  are  two  alphabets  (invented 
by  the  Japanese),  which  are  strangely  mixed  up  with 

*  Quotation  from  Japan  Evangelist  of  January,  igi2,  p.  39. 
■\  Independent,  April  25,  1912, 


30  THE  FIELD 

Chinese  characters  in  common  print.  A  typewriter, 
therefore,  for  the  Japanese  language  is  impracticable. 
Several  attempts  have  been  made  at  typewriter  con- 
struction, without  success.  There  is  a  gain,  however,  be- 
cause Koreans,  Chinese,  and  Japanese  quickly  master 
the  language  of  their  neighbours.  They  all  pronounce 
the  same  character  differently,  but  the  meaning  remains 
the  same  in  whichever  country  a  Chinese  character  is 
read. 

Japan  has  a  compulsory  system  of  elementary  educa- 
tion, in  which  children,  both  boys  and  girls,  whose  births 
have  been  reported  to  the  Government,  must  attend 
school  for  six  or  eight  years.  After  leaving  the  ele- 
mentary grades,  the  boys  and  girls  are  separated.  The 
boys  are  provided  a  five  years'  course  in  the  Middle 
Schools,  and  the  girls  a  four  years'  course  in  Girls' 
High  Schools.  There  are  three  Imperial  Universities 
for  men,  and  many  special  schools  of  all  sorts  for  both 
sexes,  such  as:  Normal,  agricultural,  industrial,  com- 
mercial, nautical,  military,  medical,  art,  language,  mu- 
sical, and  religious.  In  many  cases  tuition  has  to  be  paid 
at  the  governmental  schools,  but  most  of  the  elementary 
schools  are  free.* 

The  newcomer  to  Japan  takes  notice  of  the  customs 
which  are  new  and  strange,  particularly  the  class  which  is 
directly  opposite  to  the  Occidental  way.  He  will  note 
that  the  carpenter  pulls  his  saw  and  plane,  and  appro- 
priates for  himself  all  the  shavings  and  scraps  of  wood ; 
that  he  turns  screws  to  the  left,  puts  locks  on  upside 
down,  and  uses  his  feet,  when  required,  as  well  as  his 
hands.  A  man  hitches  his  horse  by  a  rope  wound  around 
the  horse's  two  front  legs,  and  if  a  farmer,  he  walks  with 
his  horse  instead  of  riding  on  the  load.     A  barber  shaves 

*  The  latest  governmental  reports  give  443  kindergartens, 
26,084  elementary  schools,  305  middle  schools  for  boys,  178 
higher  girls'  schools,  and  8  colleges  as  the  last  step  into  the 
Imperial  Universities. 


THE  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PEOPLE  31 

out  the  hairs  of  the  nose  and  ears  and  frequently  shaves 
off  the  eyebrows  of  his  female  customers.  The  needle 
is  pushed  upon  the  thread,  the  candle  is  pushed  upon 
the  spike,  and  the  match  is  pushed  across  the  box.  Bells 
are  usually  struck  with  the  blow  of  a  hammer  or  a  swing- 
ing pole.  A  reader  begins  at  the  back  of  his  book,  at 
the  right-hand  side  of  the  page,  reads  downways  with 
a  singsong,  audible  voice.  A  Japanese  seldom  kisses. 
Handshaking  with  foreigners  is  in  its  awkward  begin- 
nings. The  good  old  fashion  was  a  bow  with  the  head 
to  the  floor,  or  if  standing,  a  bow  so  low  that  the  bower 
frequently  rubbed  his  shins  to  hold  his  equilibrium. 

As  a  rule,  Japanese  eat  but  little  meat,  for  it  is  too 
expensive.  A  handful  of  chopped  beef  will  do  for  a 
family.  At  chicken  or  duck  shops  you  can  buy  a  leg, 
or  a  wing,  or  a  gizzard,  to  suit  your  fancy.  Bear  is  still 
found  in  the  more  remote  mountain  fastnesses,  and 
deer  and  wild  boar  are  sometimes  on  sale  in  Tokyo.  Near 
the  coast-line  fish  are  abundant  and  cheap.  Salmon,  sar- 
dines, mackerel,  herring,  shark,  octupus,  and  tunny  are 
commonly  on  sale.  A  great  variety  of  vegetables  is  seen 
in  Japanese  markets  the  year  round.  Sweet  potatoes, 
beans,  cabbage,  squash,  eggplant,  lotus  root,  and  many 
varieties  of  leaves  and  tubers  unknown  to  the  reader  are 
eaten.  The  long  white  radish,  two  feet  in  length  and 
two  to  three  inches  thick,  is  everywhere  used  in  Japan. 
It  is  cooked,  pickled,  or  dried  in  strips.  All  relish,  and 
all  can  afford  this  loud-smelling  appetizer.  From  the 
noble's  mansion  to  the  lowly  cottage  by  the  roadside,  the 
chief  article  of  food  is  rice.  You  can  see  the  baby  nip- 
ping the  sticky  kernels  from  his  fingers  with  the  same 
satisfaction  that  the  hungry  labourer  crams  great  chunks 
between  his  molars. 

The  children  of  Japan  are  not  different  from  the 
children  of  the  United  States.  They  cry  the  same  and 
just  as  loudly.  They  laugh  the  same  and  they  play  the 
same.     Their  beautiful  eyes,  their  plump  cheeks,  their 


S2  THE  FIELD 

frank  and  trusting  ways  pull  on  your  heartstrings  just 
the  same.  True,  they  are  dressed  differently,  and  every 
colour  of  the  rainbow  is  drawn  upon  to  ornament  their 
silk  or  cotton  kimonos.  Their  hair  may  be  clipped  so 
that  goatees  like  a  turkey  gobbler's  may  hang  down 
from  the  rear  or  the  sides  or  the  top  of  the  head.  Their 
eyes  are  universally  black  and  so  is  their  hair.  They 
may  go  bare-legged  the  year  round  and  their  unwiped 
noses  may  flow  most  of  the  time, — yet  here,  just  as  in 
America,  they,  whose  angels  do  always  behold  the  face 
of  the  Father,  have  a  striking  similarity,  a  winning  in- 
nocency,  an  impulsive  abandon,  whether  in  a  fight  or  in 
play.  While  the  American  boy  delights  to  kick  tin  cans 
into  deformity,  the  Japanese  kicks  at  stones  and  sticks 
with  a  similar  delight. 

Japan  is  a  paradise  for  husbands.  Occidental  brothers 
know  little  of  the  pleasurable  tyranny  with  which  the 
Oriental  master  reigns  as  domestic  king.  The  wife  will 
never  think  of  eating  the  evening  meal  till  her  husband's 
return,  even  if  he  is  delayed  till  midnight.  As  she  left 
him  at  the  door  when  he  departed,  so  is  she  there  to 
greet  him  on  his  return — she  takes  his  gloves,  his  hat, 
his  coat,  claps  for  the  servant  to  bring  the  firebox,  pours 
out  his  tea,  worries  over  the  bath,  lays  out  a  change  of 
clothes,  and  all  the  time  she  entertains  her  lord  with 
the  most  agreeable  of  feminine  loquacity.  The  new 
civil  code  has  made  a  big  step  forward  in  its  consid- 
eration of  the  rights  of  women.  But  custom  is  stronger 
than  law,  and  women  will  continue  to  suffer  under  the 
Confucian  and  Buddhistic  conceptions  for  years  to  come. 
Her  rocky  soil  and  her  growing  population  will  of  neces- 
sity force  Japan  upon  the  sea  and  make  her  a  great 
manufacturing  country  if  her  millions  are  to  subsist.  Al- 
ready her  merchant  marine  consists  of  1,308,446  tons, 
against  that  of  2,033,100  tons  for  the  United  States.* 

*  These  figures,  taken  from  the  Shipping  Year  Book  for  1913, 
are  for  seagoing  steamers  of  100  tons  gross. 


THE  EMPIRE  AND  ITS  PEOPLE  33 

The  west  coast  of  South  America  and  the  United  States, 
Australia  and  the  isles  of  the  Pacific,  and  ports  of  call 
from  Yokohama  to  London  and  Antwerp,  are  regularly 
visited  by  Japanese  ships.*  Manufactures  are  in  their 
incipiency,  but  if  the  Japanese  now  manufacture  moving 
pictures,  phonographs,  soaps,  perfumeries,  pens,  lead 
pencils,  silks,  cotton  goods,  hats,  stockings,  printing 
presses  and  steam  engines,  it  would  be  no  risk  to  say  that 
they  will  compete  for  world  markets  along  every  line 
that  they  may  find  to  their  profit  and  liking. 

Changes  are  coming  over  the  East ;  great  changes  that 
are  irresistible.  China,  with  souls  enough  to  populate 
a  planet,  is  now  in  motion.  Japan  like  a  citadel  stands 
out  in  bold  outline  by  day,  and  by  night  her  illuminations 
flash  and  glimmer,  seen  by  the  millions  of  Asia  from 
afar.  The  United  States  has  insular  possessions  in  the 
Orient  which  give  her  commercial  and  financial  inter- 
ests which  will  increase  with  the  years.  But  our  country 
may  as  well  try  to  plug  the  Amazon  or  pump  the  Gulf 
dry  as  to  dream  of  shaping  the  Far  East.  The  great 
Republic,  however,  may  contribute  mightily  toward  the 
final  course  of  the  strong  currents  now  in  motion,  by 
acting  as  a  friendly,  trustworthy,  and  sympathetic 
neighbour. 

*  Most  of  Japan's  merchant  marine  is  at  the  service  of  the 
government  in  time  of  war.  It  reached,  in  1913,  a  subsidy  of 
$5,415,347. 


Ill 

CHANGES   AND   TRANSFORMATIONS 


When  we  arrived  in  Japan,  in  the  autumn  of  1873,  there  was 
not,  in  the  whole  Empire,  a  single  preaching  place.  The  one 
church  of  a  dozen  members  met  on  the  premises  of  a  missionary 
under  the  protection  of  the  United  States  flag. — M.  L.  Gordon, 
"An  American  Missionary  in  Japan,"  p.  45. 

Full  fathom  five,  thy  father  lies : 

Of  his  bones  are  coral  made ; 
Those  are  pearls  that  were  his  eyes : 

Nothing  of  him  that  doth  fade, 
But  doth  suffer  a  sea-change. 

Into  something  rich  and  strange, 

— Selected  from  "  The  Tempest." 

What  has  been  called  her  rise  in  the  scale  of  civilized  nations, 
except  in  so  far  as  international  power  is  concerned,  has  been, 
after  all,  little  of  a  rise.  It  has  only  been  a  change  of  front,  and 
the  application  of  mental  and  moral  powers  in  new  directions, 
which  enabled  her  successfully  to  assert  claims  which  pre- 
viously she  had  been  content  not  to  make. — Henry  Dyer, 
"Japan  in  World  Politics,"  p.   141. 

By  the  advice  of  the  United  States  Minister  Harris,  the  Sho- 
gunate,  in  the  spring  of  i860,  equipped  a  large  number  of  young 
aspirants  for  governmental  honours  and  sent  them  abroad  to 
pursue  various  courses  of  learning  and  to  familiarize  them- 
selves, each  in  his  own  specialty,  with  every  branch  of  modern 
civilization.  Sixty-five  of  these  Japanese  students  after  com- 
pleting their  respective  courses  returned  permeated  with  the 
best  learning  of  the  age,  as  the  bearers  of  modern  enlightenment 
in  their  country. — Masuji  Miyakawa,  "Life  of  Japan,"  p.  212. 

"  Japanese  have  keen  intelligence,  noble  and  courageous  hearts, 
obliging  dispositions,  politeness  of  manners  and  inclinations  dis- 
posed toward  that  which  is  good.  Those  who  have  known  them, 
have  decidedly  preferred  them  to  all  the  other  peoples  of  Asia, 
and  it  is  only  their  lack  of  the  true  religion  that  prevents  them 
from  competing  with  the  nations  of  Europe."  Words  of  Gon- 
zales, when  introducing  an  Embassy  sent  by  Nobunaga,  to  the 
Pope. — "  Eastern  Asia  :  A  History,"  p.  149. 


Ill 

CHANGES   AND   TRANSFORMATIONS 

THE  Athenians  in  Paul's  day  delighted  "  to  tell  or 
hear  some  new  thing."  The  Japanese  are  prone 
to  hear,  see,  or  use  new  things  if  they  become 
convinced  that  they  will  be  pleased  or  benefited  thereby. 
They  do  not  intend  to  be  behind  in  anything.  Olympic 
games,  a  race  for  the  South  Pole,  Shimose  powder,  flying 
machines,  and  a  thousand  other  items  would  fail  to  com- 
plete the  list  of  their  activities.  Years  ago,  a  Japanese 
from  the  country  came  to  Tokyo  on  a  visit.  It  is  the 
custom  on  returning  from  a  long  journey,  to  carry  back 
many  presents  to  friends  and  relatives.  The  most  in- 
teresting item  on  this  occasion  was  a  box  of  foreign  cake. 
As  this  new  and  strange  item  of  Western  diet  had  to 
accommodate  a  large  circle  of  friends,  it  was  cut  into 
small  bits,  chewed  deliberately,  and  swallowed  under  the 
high  pressure  of  a  volition  determined  to  be  abreast  of  the 
times.  The  cake  proved  to  be  a  box  of  Mason's  shoe 
blacking.  Since  then,  the  donor  of  the  cake  has  educated 
one  daughter  in  America  and  has  made  good  in  his  efforts 
to  outdo  his  forefathers. 

Every  year,  every  decade,  brings  changes  to  Japan.  I 
was  talking  with  a  veteran  missionary  some  weeks  ago 
who  saw  the  late  Emperor's  Procession  which  ac- 
companied him  in  his  first  journey  from  Kyoto  to  Tokyo. 
The  Emperor  was  entirely  shut  in  within  a  magnificent 
box-like  canopy  which  was  born  upon  the  poles  of  car- 
riers. No  one  ever  dreamed  then  of  ever  looking  upon 
his  face.  But  since  then,  both  he  and  the  present  Em- 
peror have  frequently  been  seen  while  driving  through 
the  streets  in  a  carriage  or  appearing  openly  at  state  and 

37 


38  THE  FIELD 

public  functions.  The  Emperor's  chrysanthemum  party 
is  one  of  the  occasions  which  is  usually  honoured  by  the 
Imperial  presence.  It  is  a  time  when  foreign  ambas- 
sadors are  kept  busy  recommending  their  own  nationals 
to  the  Japanese  foreign  Department  as  worthy  of  mixing 
with  the  nobility  of  the  land. 

But  a  few  years  ago,  every  one  walked,  or  floated 
leisurely  down  the  rivers  in  a  boat.  A  few  of  the  more 
delicate  and  aristocratic  were  carried  about  in  a  basket 
called  a  kago.  Now  the  fast  express  with  dining-car  and 
sleepers  goes  rushing  through  the  rice  fields.  In  Tokyo, 
where  the  speed  limit  for  any  vehicle  is  ten  miles  an  hour, 
chaufifeurs  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  police  speed  up 
to  thirty  miles  an  hour.  Cyclists  to-day,  instead  of  the 
two-sworded  Samurai,  are  the  terror  of  the  aged  and 
little  children.  At  busy  corners  one  must  sidestep  for 
electric  cars  and  rubber-tired  jinrikishas,  whose  pullers 
have  exchanged  their  warning  yell  for  a  nickel-plated 
bell. 

Tokyo  has  changed  since  the  opening  of  the  century. 
Streets  have  been  widened,  sidewalks  made,  as  well  as 
roads  paved  with  wood  blocks  and  asphalt.  The  uni- 
form one,  or  two  storied  buildings  are  being  replaced 
in  busy  centres  by  buildings  of  brick  and  stone,  with  a 
frame-work  of  structural  steel,  finished  with  elevators 
and  slate-roofs.  A  new  central  station  over  a  thousand 
feet  in  length,  is  being  built  in  Tokyo.  At  night,  the 
outlines  of  the  prominent  buildings  gleam  with  electric 
bulbs,  and  variating  electrical  advertisements  flash  out  the 
excellences  of  Yebisu  Beer  and  Lion  Tooth  Powder. 
Tokyo  is  crowding  out  into  the  adjoining  rice  fields  and 
wheat  fields.  Land  has  risen  in  valuation  until  even 
the  oyster  beds  of  Tokyo  Bay  have  become  the  founda- 
tions of  dwellings  and  factories.  Rising  land  values  are 
driving  the  poor  from  their  former  haunts  and  have 
made  many  a  poor  farmer  near  the  suburbs  independ- 
ently rich.       In  1883  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 


TJilKD-CLASS   PASSEXGER   CAR 


ON   THE   WAY   TO   WORSHIP  THE  FOX   GOD 


CHANGES  AND  TRANSFORMATIONS        39 

bought  twenty-five  acres  of  land  for  $2500.  Here  they 
located  several  schools  and  built  a  number  of  missionary 
homes.  To-day,  the  city  has  grown  around  the  com- 
pound and  the  land  has  risen  in  value  to  $375,000. 

Country  life,  while  moving  very  much  as  in  the  days 
of  Abraham,  is  experiencing  its  changes.  Paper  in  the 
windows  is  giving  place  to  glass.  Tin  and  zinc  are  used 
for  fences  and  roofing.  Small  towns  are  introducing 
electric  lights  or  acetylene  gas.  Their  dry  goods  stores 
cater  to  the  youth  in  the  way  of  neckties,  white  shirts, 
kid  gloves,  straw  and  felt  hats.  In  the  country,  one  en- 
counters Standard  Oil  Company's  tanks,  Singer  Sewing 
Machines,  Worcestershire  Sauce,  Milkmaid  Brand  of 
condensed  milk,  French  perfumery  and  great  quantities 
of  American  cotton  and  flour.  What  are  these  articles 
but  proof  that  if  the  nations  can  stop  fighting  long  enough 
to  get  well  acquainted,  every  nation  will  invite  all  other 
nations  to  contribute,  in  a  commercial  way,  the  best 
that  it  can  produce  for  its  own  comforts,  support,  and 
enjoyment  ? 

Commercially,  industrially,  and  financially,  none  but 
a  specialist  could  note  the  changes  inaugurated  or  brew- 
ing in  Japan.  Great  plants  of  brick  are  being  erected 
where  once  the  fox  and  the  wild  duck  ignored  the  patient 
farmer  at  his  toil.  lyeyasu,  some  three  hundred  years 
ago,  limited  the  size  of  Japan's  sea-going  boats  and  re- 
stricted them  to  coasting  and  river  traffic.  In  the  last 
ten  years  an  Osaka  Steamship  Company  has  made 
Tacoma  a  port  of  call,  and  the  Oriental  Steamship  Com- 
pany has  joined  hands  with  the  Western  Pacific  to  share 
with  the  Harriman  Railway  legacy  the  profits  of  the  Pa- 
cific Ocean  traffic.  Heavy  purchases  of  real  estate  in 
Shanghai  have  been  made  by  Japanese  buyers.  Steam 
trawlers  have  been  brought  out  from  England  to  compel 
the  sea  to  surrender  more  of  its  abundance  of  fish. 

Japan  has  changed  governmentally  and  geographically 
in  the  last  twenty-five  years.     The  promulgation  of  the 


40  THE  FIELD 

Constitution,  the  establishment  of  Parliament,  the  right 
of  suffrage,  even  if  to  a  few,  were  significant  and  epoch- 
making  changes.  The  absorption  by  the  Government,  of 
the  control  of  various  industries  to  weather  the  strain  of 
a  great  national  debt  and  its  obligation  of  interest,  the 
increases  in  the  Army  and  Navy,  the  extension  of  edu- 
cation, the  outlays  upon  public  works,  are  actions  of  state 
new  and  radical  in  themselves  and  pregnant  with  prob- 
lems for  statesmen. 

Formerly  epidemics  of  cholera,  typhoid,  dysentery,  and 
smallpox  carried  away  multitudes.  These  are  now  cared 
for  by  scientific  nursing  in  well-equipped  hospitals.  The 
people  are  better  fed,  better  clothed,  better  housed,  better 
educated  than  formerly.  Back  of  all  change  and  move- 
ment, is  the  spirit  of  the  people;  but  these  changes  in- 
evitably are  introducing  a  change  in  the  spirit  and  temper 
of  the  people.  A  man  who  has  resided  some  fifty  years 
in  Japan  told  me  that  the  most  striking  thing  that  he  had 
noticed  in  the  last  two  score  of  years  was  the  change  in 
the  temper  of  the  people.  He  said  that  formerly  the 
people  were  submissive  and  humble,  but  now  a  marked 
spirit  of  self-assertion  is  everywhere  in  evidence.  To- 
day, the  coolie  on  the  street  car  will  jostle  a  well-dressed 
gentleman  where,  but  a  few  years  ago,  he  would  have 
given  his  superior  a  margin  of  several  feet,  in  passing 
on  the  road.  The  Government's  uneasiness  over  so- 
cialism and  the  beginnings  of  a  campaign  against  the  Yosh- 
iwara  System  are  proofs  that  great  changes  have  taken 
place  in  the  moral  and  mental  temper  of  the  people — 
changes  which  will  continue  until  the  whole  social  system 
based  upon  Confucius,  Buddha,  and  feudalism  is  en- 
tirely reconstructed. 

The  encouraging  feature  is  that  the  Japanese  them- 
selves are  not  satisfied  with  themselves.  Following  the 
anarchistic  plot  and  the  execution  of  twelve  of  the  ring- 
leaders, a  heart-searching  that  had  been  going  on  for 
years  received  a  mighty  forward  impulse.    Great  dailies 


CHANGES  AND  TRANSFORMATIONS        41 

and  magazines  find  room  for  many  earnest  and  learned 
articles  bearing  upon  morality  and  religion.  "  In  the 
fulness  of  the  times  "  God  has  sent  His  Gospel  to  Japan. 
Formerly,  the  crucifix  was  trampled  upon  but  now  one 
can  seldom  pass  through  a  department  store  without 
seeing  on  sale  the  picture  of  the  crucifixion.  Ten  years 
ago  the  New  Testament  was  on  sale  in  but  a  few  stores 
in  Tokyo,  but  now  so  popular  has  it  become  that  it  can 
be  bought  in  scores  of  places  and  in  most  parts  of  the 
city. 

A  decade  ago  Christmas  was  a  celebration  known  only 
among  the  Churches  and  Sunday  Schools,  but  now  mer- 
chants have  caught  up  the  idea,  and  every  year  Christmas 
decorations  and  Christmas  attractions  are  offered  to  many 
who  know  little  of  the  word,  except  it  is  a  Christian 
festival.  A  traveller  in  an  interior  town  passed  a  store 
on  Christmas  Eve  and  heard  from  the  door  the  strains 
of  "  Silent  Night,"  played  by  an  imported  music  box. 
A  decade  ago  one  heard  nothing  on  the  streets  but  the 
chants  of  Buddhistic  devotees  and  at  night  nothing  but 
the  weird  and  vociferous  attempts  of  students  in  their  ex- 
pressions of  poetical  agony.  Now  it  is  not  an  uncommon 
thing  to  hear  Gospel  songs,  or  bits  of  them,  sung  by 
students,  children,  and  messenger  boys.  In  a  temple  yard 
in  a  mountainous  district,  far  removed  from  Tokyo,  I 
once  heard  a  troop  of  little  girls  singing  **  Bringing  in 
the  Sheaves."  The  other  day  some  children  who  were 
standing  before  a  fox  shrine,  sang  "  Jesus  Loves  Me." 

To-day  the  Japanese  are  not  only  receiving  the  Gospel, 
but  the  Government's  subsidized  boats  are  carrying  the 
Gospel  heralds  and  their  letters  to  and  fro  on  the  At- 
lantic, the  Indian  and  the  Pacific  Oceans.  The  Chiyo 
Maru,  on  which  I  once  crossed  the  Pacific,  belongs  to 
Japan's  naval  reserve.  Perhaps  I  could  pay  no  higher 
tribute  to  Japan's  push  and  ability  than  to  mention  a 
few  things  about  the  ship,  which  impressed  me.  Its 
wireless  outfit  was  the  first  I  had  ever  seen.     The  oper- 


42  THE  FIELD 

ator  was  a  graduate  of  the  Imperial  University.  He 
seemed  to  handle  the  snappy,  restless  fiery  energy  and 
handled  his  instruments  with  as  much  ease  as  a  house- 
wife her  dough  and  rolling  pin.  The  Chiyo  and  her 
sisters  are  the  only  merchantmen  on  the  Pacific  which 
have  turbines  and  use  oil  for  fuel.  The  doors  of  the 
water-tight  bulkheads  have  electrical  connections  with 
the  bridge,  and  in  time  of  danger,  they  can  all  be  closed 
instantaneously  and  simultaneously  by  fthe  officer  in 
charge.  The  Chiyo  is  equipped  for  comfort  in  tropical 
or  frigid  weather.  Powerful  fans  drive  the  cool  or  the 
hot  air  to  every  part  of  the  ship.  The  parlours  are  sump- 
tuous to  a  degree  seen  only  in  the  palaces  of  kings.  Large 
sections  of  the  iron  work  and  machinery  were  shipped 
from  England,  but  the  joining  was  done  by  Japanese 
workmen  at  Nagasaki. 

They  have  searched  the  entire  world  for  the  very  latest 
in  ship  construction.  Inevitably,  such  acuteness  and  ap- 
preciation of  what  is  best  and  valuable  will  carry  them 
further  than  the  world  of  things.  They  will  ultimately 
come  to  see  that  the  Nazarene  is  the  One  altogether  lovely, 
the  only  Sinless  One,  the  only  Bread  of  Life  that  can 
satisfy  the  heart  hunger  of  a  nation.  In  the  beginnings 
of  the  modern  eflfort  to  Christianize  Japan,  the  mission- 
aries toiled  for  thirteen  years  before  the  first  church  was 
established.  But  now,  every  year  new  preaching  places, 
new  Sunday  Schools,  new  churches,  newly  graduated 
pastors,  are  dedicated  to  Him  who  rules  in  righteousness. 


IV 
VILLAGE   AND    COUNTRY   LIFE 


Custom  forms  us  all; 

Our  thoughts,  our  morals,  our  more  fixed  belief, 
Are  consequences  of  our  place  and  birth. 

— Hill. 

Princess  and  Lords  may  flourish  or  may  fade, 
A  breath  can  make  them,  as  a  breath  has  made, 
But  a  bold  peasantry,  their  country's  pride, 
When  once  destroyed,  can  never  be  supplied. 

— Goldsmith. 

The  peasant  proprietors  are  disappearing,  and  we  are  getting 
a  class  of  landlords — and  absentee  landlords  at  that — who  live 
in  the  towns  and  rent  the  lands  they  have  acquired  to  the  sons 
of  the  former  peasant  proprietors,  of  whom  many  have  sunk 
from  the  tenant  farmers  to  day  labourers. — Arthur  Lloyd, 
"  Every  Day  Japan,"  p.  294. 

April  transforms  your  whole  land  into  a  pink  orchard,  while 
azaleas  perfume  every  garden  and  verded  glade.  Each  suc- 
ceeding season  brings  some  new  enchantment  in  Nature's  prog- 
ress around  the  calender,  till  autumn  consummates  the  whole  with 
its  display  of  crysanthemum  blooms  and  the  gorgeous  scarlet 
panoply  of  the  maple. — Col.  C.  P.  Bryan. 

If  you  listen  you  will  hear  from  East  to  West, 
Growing  sounds  of  discontent  and  deep  unrest. 
It  is  the  just,  the  progressive-driven  Plough  of  God, 
Tearing  up  the  well-worn  custom-bounded  sod, 
Shaping  out  each  old  tradition-trodden  track. 
Into  furrows — fertile  furrows,  rich  and  black. 

Oh,  what  harvest  they  will  yield. 

When  they  widen  to  a  field ! 

Let  the  wise  man  hear  the  menace  that  is  blent. 
In  this  ever-growing  sound  of  discontent. 
Let  him  hear  the  rising  clamour  of  the  race 
That  the  few  shall  yield  the  many  larger  space ; 
For  the  crucial  hour  is  coming  when  the  soil 
Must  be  given  to,  or  taken  back,  by  Toil. 

Oh,  the  mighty  Plough  of  God — 

Hear  it  breaking  through  the  sod ! 
— Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox,  Cosmopolitan,  February,  1913. 


IV 

VILLAGE  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE 

THE  contrast  between  the  American  farmer  and 
the  Japanese  farmer  is  very  marked.  The  Amer- 
ican may  have  a  piano  in  his  parlour  and  electric 
lights  in  his  barn.  He  pays  a  minimum  of  taxation  and 
not  frequently  has  an  auto,  not  to  speak  of  steam  ploughs 
and  threshers.  His  Japanese  neighbour  has  no  time  for 
music,  no  barn  for  implements,  and  as  a  rule  he  has  no 
cattle,  hogs,  or  sheep.  He  seldom  has  a  bank  account, 
seldom  goes  a  league  from  home,  seldom  has  a  rest  day, 
and  seldom  appears  in  other  than  his  working  clothes. 
Instead  of  great  ranches  and  sections  of  land,  46  per  cent 
of  Japan's  farmers  own  less  than  one  acre  and  2  per  cent 
less  than  two  acres.  * 

Formerly,  the  farmer  gave  a  grain  tax  based  on  land 
area.  Now  he  pays  a  money  tax  based  on  land  valua- 
tion. Both  the  tax  and  land  values  have  increased, 
owing  to  the  late  Russian  War.  Added  to  increased 
taxation  is  the  increase  of  more  than  half  a  million  chil- 
dren yearly  which  must  be  fed  from  the  overcrowded 
farming  areas.  The  result  is  that  the  small  farmer  is 
forced,  by  debt,  from  his  farm,  to  seek  food  and  shelter 
in  the  cities.  Thither  flock  his  girls  as  maids  and  nurses, 
and  his  boys  as  day-labourers  or  apprentices.  The  father 
frequently  becomes  a  tenant  or  day-labourer  on  the  little 
heritage  handed  down  from  his  forefathers.  The  average 
of  tax  arrearage  that  resulted  in  governmental  sales  of 
farms  in  1906  was  423^  cents.     If  a  farmer  becomes  a 

*  The  author  is  indebted  to  an  article  by  Prof.  R.  Nagai,  which 
appeared  in  the  Shin  Nippon,  translated  by  the  Japan  Times; 
also  to  the  Japan  Year  Book. 

45 


46  THE  FIELD 

tenant  on  his  own  farm  he  gives  57^^  of  the  rice  yield  to 
the  landlord,  buys  the  fertilizers  and  pays  all  the  running 
expenses  of  the  farm.  Guano,  compost,  nitrates,  and 
manure  cost  the  farmers  of  Japan  $83,000,000  annually. 

The  real  Japan  of  to-day  is  found  in  the  country  and 
smaller  villages.  Japan's  millions  are  fed  and  her 
national  credit  is  sustained  by  the  man  with  the  hoe. 
The  farmer  and  the  fisher  are  the  mainstays  of  the  army 
and  the  navy.  The  homy-handed,  sunburned  cottagers 
with  their  straw-roofed  houses,  straw  sandals,  and  straw 
hats,  furnish  a  good  balance  of  conservatism,  which 
serves  as  a  bulwark  in  these  days  of  stress  and  change. 
Country  life  has  been  less  affected  by  Christianity  than 
city  life.  It  is  in  the  country,  among  the  fisher  folk  and 
the  hamlets  of  the  mountains,  that  Japanese  life  can  be 
observed  to-day  very  much  as  it  could  have  been  seen  fifty 
years  ago.  There  are  8,944,693  houses  in  Japan  and 
5,410,004  are  the  homes  of  farmers  who  constitute  60 
per  cent  of  the  population. 

Nothing  could  be  more  interesting  to  an  Occidental  than 
a  journey  on  foot  or  a  ride  in  a  stage  through  a  country 
district.  He  will  always  be  in  sight  of  mountains,  always 
in  sight  of  homes  and  living  beings.  Japan's  cultivable 
area  is  less  than  20,000  square  miles.  (West  Virginia's 
area  is  24,645  square  miles).  The  bulk  of  the  people 
on  this  small  area  not  only  live,  but  by  their  frugality 
and  patriotism  have  pushed  Japan  to  the  forefront  as 
a  first-class  power.  The  traveller  will  notice  here  a  field 
flooded  with  water;  there  a  field  of  growing  rice;  ad- 
joining it  a  small  patch  of  wheat,  greens,  sweet  potatoes, 
beans,  tobacco,  millet,  mulberry.  Fifteen  per  cent  more 
of  the  land  could  be  thrown  into  cultivation  if  the  numer- 
ous footpaths  and  raised  boundaries  of  plastered  earth 
were  turned  to  cultivation,  and  if  improved  methods  of 
irrigation  were  introduced. 

A  country  landscape  presents  a  pleasing  variety  of 
colours.     Countless  shades  of  green  are  mixed  with  the 


VILLAGE  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  47 

silvery  sheen  of  paddy  fields,  the  black  of  earth,  and  the 
gold  of  ripening  grain.  There  is  a  crowded  compactness 
of  trees,  houses,  and  fields.  There  is  a  labyrinth  of 
roads,  of  footpaths,  of  shrines  and  cottages.  Yonder, 
on  a  hill  crowned  with  pines,  is  a  long  series  of  stone  steps 
leading  to  a  Buddhist  temple.  By  the  side  of  the  temple, 
in  a  little  plot  of  ground  fringed  with  bamboo,  are  the 
moss-covered  stones,  brown  with  age,  which  mark  the 
resting-place  of  the  dead.  We  pass  on  the  road  many 
idols,  and  we  frequently  see  in  the  yards  of  the  farmers 
a  private  shrine,  and  sometimes,  within  the  yard  is  the 
family  burying  ground.  The  eaves  of  the  straw-roofed 
dwelling  sometimes  extend  out  four  or  five  feet  and  under 
them  will  be  piled  the  bamboo  trays  for  the  silk  cocoons, 
bundles  of  straw,  piles  of  twigs  and  branches  for  the 
kitchen  fire.  When  the  farmer  piles  his  straw  in  the 
open  he  usually  ties  it  in  bundles  to  a  slender  tree  with 
a  sharp  slant  to  shed  the  rain.  The  house  is  frequently 
hidden  by  a  dense  tangle  of  trees.  The  bamboo,  the 
pine,  the  camelia,  the  plum,  and  the  persimmon  can 
usually  be  seen. 

Occasionally,  a  farmer  can  aflford  a  horse  and  a  harrow. 
The  horses  are  hardy,  stout,  and  vicious.  The  head  is 
large,  the  shoulders  well-formed,  the  hoofs  are  small, 
and  the  hips  ill-shaped.  The  more  gentle  can  be  led  by 
a  rope,  but  quite  often,  when  worked  in  the  fields,  the 
horse  is  propelled  by  a  six-foot  pole  tied  to  the  bit  at 
one  end  and  directed  by  a  man  at  the  other.  In  the 
fields,  winter  or  summer,  rain  or  shine,  the  farmer,  the 
mother,  the  son,  the  daughter,  and  the  grandparents 
work  up  to  their  knees  in  muck  and  water.  In  mid- 
summer, maidens  not  infrequently  have  their  heads  and 
faces  all  but  concealed  by  a  coarse  cotton  cloth.  The 
explanation  of  this  mystery  of  sex  and  white  muslin 
is  the  preservation  of  their  complexions.  The  Japanese 
maiden  thinks  just  as  much  of  a  mirror  and  precipitated 
chalk  as  does  her  Western  sister. 


48  THE  FIELD 

At  a  country  village  you  will  find  a  post-office  with 
a  telephone,  barber  shop,  and  a  schoolhouse.  There  is 
usually  a  fire-alarm  which  consists  of  a  bell,  suspended 
at  the  top  of  a  perpendicular  bamboo  ladder.  If  of  good 
size,  the  village  will  have  several  temples.  In  the  yards, 
the  children  play  during  the  day  and  thither  gather  the 
old  dames  who  spin  their  yarns  and  croon  to  the  babies 
on  their  backs.  There  will  also  be  a  good  hotel,  a  bath- 
house, and  several  stores.  A  few  rich  men  may  reside 
in  the  village  and  if  so,  their  houses  will  be  tiled,  their 
fences  will  be  kept  in  good  repair,  and  some  of  the  build- 
ings will  be  plastered  on  the  outside  with  a  coating  of 
pure  lime.  There  is  no  hurry  and  no  commotion  in  coun- 
try life.  The  biggest  event  of  the  day  in  a  village  is  the 
coming  of  the  mail-man  with  the  dailies,  or  the  passing 
of  a  stage.  Events  extraordinary  would  include  a  death, 
a  marriage,  the  return  of  a  soldier,  or  of  a  student  who 
had  completed  the  course  of  some  advanced  school.  The 
soldier  and  the  student  are  held  in  the  respect  that  ap- 
proaches reverence.  Occasionally,  a  peddler  or  a  troop 
of  travelling  singers  will  pass  the  town.  A  good-sized 
town  will  have  its  own  theatre.  The  head  man  of  the 
village,  the  doctor  and  the  school-teacher,  are  the  leading 
men.  Among  them  should  be  mentioned  the  money- 
lender, who,  though  a  necessity,  is  unpopular  and  oft- 
times  thoroughly  hated.  The  Japanese  word  for  pawn- 
broker, when  pronounced,  has  a  sound  suggestive  of 
ice  or  a  lion's  den.  In  the  experiences  of  the  people 
they  are  not  dissimilar. 

The  Japanese  broker  for  small  loans  wants  50  per  cent 
and  upward.  How  much  he  is  in  demand  may  be  judged 
from  the  fact  that  in  1907  while  1,505,857  farms  were 
exchanged  by  purchase,  660,161  were  acquired  by  mort- 
gage. In  1904,  the  first  year  of  the  war  with  Russia, 
the  acquisitions  by  mortgage  were  883,146.  The  tiny 
Japanese  farms  are  more  like  town  lots  than  anything 


VILLAGE  AND  COUNTRY  LIFE  49 

else.  In  Japan  proper  the  average  rice  field  is  only  one- 
eighth  of  an  acre. 

It  is  not  the  Government's  taxation  alone  which  is 
making  paupers  of  many  of  Japan's  farmers.  The  bind- 
ing law  of  etiquette  is  likewise  a  cause.  A  funeral  is 
always  a  big  expense.  Presents  are  always  exchanged 
and  debt  is  frequently  incurred.  When  the  father  gives 
his  daughter  in  marriage  he  likewise  gives  a  dowry  of 
clothes  and  certain  articles  of  furniture  that  may  burden 
him  with  debt  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  A  farmer  of  my 
acquaintance  borrowed  $300  to  properly  equip  his  married 
daughter,  and  he  estimated  that  it  would  take  him  fifteen 
years  to  pay  the  debt. 

If  you  spend  a  day  in  a  village,  you  will  notice  that 
every  one  is  at  work.  They  take  time  for  an  occasional 
smoke,  for  a  cup  of  tea,  and  courteous  greetings  by  the 
way,  but  every  one  works.  There  is  a  village  matron 
grinding  rice  with  two  stones.  Out  of  the  flour  she  will 
make  her  cakes  which  are  in  much  demand  by  the 
school  children.  There  comes  a  man  with  a  bundle  of 
freshly  cut  rice  on  his  back,  leading  a  horse  with  every- 
thing but  head  and  legs  concealed  by  a  stack  of  the  same 
precious  harvest,  which  it  carries  on  its  back.  Before 
long,  his  wife  and  mother  will  pull  the  straws  through 
an  iron  tooth  comb  and  his  daughter-in-law  will  beat 
the  rice  heads  with  a  flail.  Later  on  she  will  winnow  the 
grain  by  tossing  it  into  a  flat  basket  against  the  wind, 
which  blows  the  chaff  away.  The  next  door,  several 
women  will  be  at  work  at  a  loom,  or,  if  in  season,  they 
will  be  whirling  a  big  spool  which  is  drawing  the  silk 
threads  from  the  cocoons  which  are  dancing  madly  about 
in  an  iron  bowl  of  hot  water. 

Formerly,  the  farmer  could  not  sell  his  land  nor  could 
he  vary  his  crops,  which  had  to  to  be  planted  according  to 
the  will  of  his  feudal  lord.  Now  he  has  more  freedom. 
He  is  better  fed  and  is  better  cared  for  in  every  way. 
Most  of  them  can  afford  a  rice  diet,  but  beans,  millet, 


50  THE  FIELD 

barley,  and  sweet  potatoes  are  drawn  upon  when  the  rice 
box  has  a  scant  supply.  It  is  not  an  exaggeration  to  say 
that  if  the  Japanese  farmers  had  the  unused  land  between 
fences,  bordering  our  American  railways,  and  rural  roads, 
they  would  pay  off  the  nation's  debt  and  their  own  private 
debts  in  a  few  years'  time.  This  is  the  class  in  Japan 
to-day  which  is  unevangelized.  They  constitute  the  bulk 
of  the  pilgrims  who,  by  the  tens  of  thousands,  flock 
annually  to  the  sacred  mountains,  shrines,  and  distant 
temples  especially  noted  for  power  to  cure  diseased  bodies, 
give  comfort  to  troubled  souls,  and  rest  for  the  unhappy 
spirits  of  the  departed. 

Go  to  the  home  of  the  farmer  or  the  villager  and  he 
will  treat  you  courteously.  Though  ever  so  poor,  he  will 
set  out  his  cup  of  tea,  accompanied  by  some  pickles, 
sugared  beans,  or  cakes.  He  does  not  fret.  He  is 
cheery,  industrious,  and  law-abiding.  The  American  or 
the  Englishman,  who  gives  the  tithe  of  a  tenth  to  God, 
has  the  satisfaction  that  he  has  done  considerable,  cer- 
tainly far  above  the  average  giver.  It  is  safe  to  say  that 
the  average  Japanese  farmer  must  give  a  third  of  his 
crop  to  convert  it  into  money  to  pay  the  governmental, 
prefectural,  and  other  taxes.  Besides  this,  he  has  calls 
for  aid  from  relatives,  and  he  gives  to  his  temples  and 
shrines.  Where  in  the  world  to-day  is  there  a  class  num- 
bering 30,000,000  who  live  on  so  small  a  margin,  who 
make  such  heavy  contributions  to  their  Government,  and 
yet  are  so  patient,  so  uncomplaining,  so  loyal,  so  intel- 
ligent, so  open-hearted. 


THE   SOCIAL   AND    FAMILY 
STRUCTURE 


As  we  have  so-  often  tried  to  point  out,  the  education  of  this 
country  is  so  conducted  as  if  its  chief  aim  consisted  in  the 
training  of  mind  and  body  in  obedience. — The  Japan  Times. 

The  evil  I  wish  to  speak  of  is  that  our  people  from  ancient 
times  thought  so  much  of  the  duty  of  obedience  that  they  forgot 
to  respect  the  individual  rights,  and  this  must  be  classed  among 
our  shortcomings. — Count  Okuma,  The  Japan  Advertiser. 

Even  to-day  Christianity  is  eyed  with  suspicion  by  so-called 
patriots  and  Imperialists.  It  is  branded  as  an  enemy  of  national 
morality.  At  the  very  least,  Christianity  is  charged  with  not  up- 
holding the  good  customs  and  traits  handed  down  from  olden 
times. — Tasuku  Harada,  International  Review  of  Missions,  Jan- 
uary, 1912,  p.  81. 

Japan  is  a  mettled  charger,  saddled  and  bridled,  but  who  shall 
mount  and  guide  her?  She  has  had  many  a  master,  Shakamuni 
— Confucius — the  rule  of  the  knight — but  all  alike  are  unable 
to  curb  her.  Christ  alone  can  master  and  rein  her  to  a  worthy 
goal. — G.  M.  Fisher. 

So  long  as  man  is  not  valued  as  a  human  being,  but  solely  ac- 
cording to  his  accidental  position  in  society,  woman  must  be  re- 
garded in  the  same  way.  She  is  valued,  first  as  a  bearer  of 
offspring,  second,  as  a  domestic.  And  when  such  conceptions 
prevail  as  to  her  nature  and  function  in  society,  defective  ideals 
as  to  morality  in  the  narrower  sense  of  this  term,  leading  to  and 
justifying  concubinage,  easy  divorce,  and  general  loose  morality, 
are  necessary  consequences. — Sidney  L.  Gulick,  "  The  Evolution 
of  the  Japanese,"  p.  260. 

As  to  what  concerns  religion,  Japan  is  the  realm  of  the  Kami 
that  is  of  Sin,  and  the  beginning  of  all  things,  and  the  good 
order  of  the  government  depends  upon  the  exact  observance  of 
the  ancient  laws  of  which  the  Kami  are  the  authors.  They  can- 
not be  departed  from  without  overthrowing  the  subordination 
which  ought  to  exist  of  subjects  to  their  sovereigns,  wives  to 
their  husbands,  children  to  their  parents,  vassals  to  their  lords, 
and  servants  to  their  masters.  The  laws  are  necessary  to  main- 
tain good  order  within  and  tranquillity  without. — Nideyoshi's 
edict  of  1592,  expelling  Catholic  Missionaries,  quoted  in  "Japan 
in  World  Politics,"  p.  11. 


THE  SOCIAL  AND  FAMILY  STRUCTURE 

IF  one  would  arrive  at  an  understanding  of  the  na- 
tional and  individual  traits  of  the  Japanese,  if  he 
would  be  temperate  when  praising  their  virtues  and 
just  when  condemning  their  immoralities,  he  must  know 
the  social  system.  It  is  a  complex  order  which  has 
united  the  Japanese  as  one  family  into  a  compact  nation. 
Stated  in  its  briefest  form,  this  system  is  based  upon 
the  relation  of  the  inferior  to  the  superior,  and  ethics 
rather  rest  upon  the  service  which  the  inferior  renders 
and  the  paternalism  which  the  superior  bestows. 

This  law  of  the  superior  and  the  inferior  is  most  com- 
monly stated  under  the  terms  of  filial  piety  and  loyalty; 
loyalty  standing  for  the  relations  of  a  subject  to  his 
ruler,  and  filial  piety  for  the  service  in  the  family.  This 
is  a  Japanese  abbreviation  of  the  five  relations  taught 
by  Confucius,  namely, — ruler  and  subject;  father  and 
son;  husband  and  wife;  elder  and  younger  brother; 
friend  and  friend.  Formerly,  the  Japanese  were  divided 
by  a  rigid  caste  system  into  the  governing  classes,  soldiers, 
farmers,  artisans,  and  next  to  the  lowest  were  the  mer- 
chants, and  below  them  were  the  scavengers  or  outcasts. 
There  was  no  intermarriage.  The  use  of  a  family 
name  was  not  granted  to  farmers,  artisans,  or  merchants. 
A  farmer  was  a  serf  who  could  neither  buy  nor  sell 
land.  Ofttimes  the  sufferings  of  the  farmer  class  were 
very  great.  In  1644  Sakura  Sogoro,  himself  a  farmer, 
came  to  Tokyo  to  appeal  directly  to  the  Shogun.  His 
efforts  were  rewarded  with  the  crucifixion  of  himself 
and  his  wife  and  the  death  of  his  three  children. 

The  soldiers  had  nothing  to  do  with  business.    They 

53 


54  THE  FIELD 

and  their  families  were  fed  by  the  feudal  lords  out  of 
the  heavy  tribute  laid  upon  the  common  people.  By 
a  soldier's  right,  he  could  cut  down  one  below  him  with 
a  sword,  and  he  always  exacted  the  most  abject  salu- 
tations from  those  below  him.  Thus,  by  the  teaching 
of  Confucius,  as  well  as  by  the  divisions  of  society  into 
the  superior  and  the  inferior,  authority  and  submission 
became  the  basis  of  character,  and  the  dominant  char- 
acteristic of  society  and  family  life.  The  Japanese  are 
naturally  affectionate  and  loyal,  and  though  the  Chinese 
teaching  was  an  imported  article,  it  has  become  a  vital 
part  of  Japanese  life  to-day,  as  is  always  in  evidence  by 
the  exercise  and  show  of  authority  by  every  superior 
and  by  the  servile  obedience  of  every  inferior,  Japan 
has  its  gods,  its  religions,  its  ethics  of  many  sages,  but 
all  combined  are  less  potent  in  their  lives,  than  the  in- 
fluence of  their  own  living  and  dead.  Ancestor  worship 
on  the  one  hand,  combined  with  the  loyalty  due  living 
superiors  on  the  other,  is  the  strongest  spiritual  and  social 
force  in  the  Japan  of  to-day.* 

We  all  know  that  our  Creator  has  placed  within  every 
heart  a  natural  moral  bent  and  every  conscience  is  en- 
dowed with  some  elemental  rules,  "  Thou  oughtest "  and 
**  Thou  shalt  not,"  but  alas !  we  are  all  creatures  of 
education  and  environment.  What  the  multitudes  do 
and  what  custom  is  established,  becomes  a  general  law 
to  all  but  the  stoutest  hearts.  Formerly,  Japan  had  no 
Ten  Commandments,  no  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  no  Christ 
who  demanded  the  forsaking  of  all  that  the  soul  might 
follow  Him.  There  was  no  spiritual  Kingdom  of  God, 
no  conversion,  no  prayer,  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth." 
In  their  minds,  a  heaven  where  Christ  reigns  to  attain 

*  "  In  conformity  with  the  spirit  of  the  ancestor  worship  cult 
observed  both  by  court  and  people,  special  attention  is  devoted 
by  the  Imperial  Household  to  preserving  and  keeping  in  due 
state  the  mausolea  and  tombs  of  the  Emperors  and  members 
of  the  Imperial  family." — p.  27,  Jafan  Year  Book,  1912. 


A    MODEL   JAPANESE  FAMILY 


THE  SOCIAL  AND  FAMILY  STRUCTURE      55 

which  the  martyrs  gladly  suffered  sword  and  flame,  did 
not  exist.  These  spiritual  forces  in  every  Christian's 
heart  have  exalted  truth  for  truth's  sake,  the  necessity 
of  purity  because  He  was  pure,  the  worship  of  God 
alone  because  He  only  is  worthy  of  worship.  Instead 
of  these  spiritual  forces  in  the  minds  and  the  lives  of 
the  Japanese,  there  is  the  elder  brother  or  sister,  the 
master  over  the  servants,  the  husband  above  his  wife,  the 
father  over  the  whole  family,  and  the  feudal  lord,  the 
Shogun,  or  the  Emperor  over  the  whole  nation.  It  was 
under  the  teaching  of  Confucius,  under  the  despotism 
which  grew  out  of  it,  under  the  struggle  for  bread,  under 
the  grip  of  the  superior,  it  could  be  seen,  sword  in  hand, 
that  Japan  has  had  unparalleled  deeds  of  devotion,  sacri- 
fice, and  heroism ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  when  the  master 
has  been  cruel,  licentious,  or  covetous,  she  has  suffered  un- 
der criticisms  as  sad  as  they  have  been  true.  There  can 
be  no  question  but  that  from  the  side  of  the  inferior 
obedience,  humility,  service,  sacrifice  unto  death,  can  be 
seen  to-day  and  can  be  read  in  the  annals  of  Japanese 
history.  Children  obey  and  revere  their  parents.  Sub- 
jects are  law-abiding  and  respectful  to  officers  of  state. 
Wives  are  models  so  far  as  their  self-surrender,  their 
motherly  virtues,  and  domestic  qualities  are  concerned. 
But  the  system  in  practice  has  no  proper  way  of  enforcing 
the  obligations  of  the  superior  or  of  putting  proper  checks 
on  his  authority  or  power.  Theoretically,  of  course, 
there  are  the  Constitution,  the  law,  the  courts,  but  prac- 
tically obedience  was  so  thoroughly  grafted  into  the  lives 
of  all  and  is  yet  so  taught  in  the  homes  and  the  schools, 
that,  generally,  the  order  of  the  superior  is  not  questioned. 
This  accounts  largely  for  the  many  divorces.  A  relative 
interferes  from  dislike  or  mercenary  reasons  and  husband 
and  wife,  though  they  love,  must  part. 

A  Japanese  writer  mentions  a  case  which,  though  rather 
extreme,  illustrates  the  negative  side,  or  the  abuse  of 
the  authority  which  the   superior  holds.     "  Recently  I 


56  THE  FIELD 

heard  of  a  man  who  was  in  straitened  circumstances, 
and  by  scheming,  succeeded  in  marrying  his  daughter 
into  a  family,  hoping  to  get  hold  of  money  to  help  him 
out  of  his  difficulties.  But  the  people  of  the  house  re- 
fused him  assistance  and  his  next  move  was  to  insist 
on  his  daughter  being  divorced.  At  last  he  accomplished 
his  design  and  promptly  sold  her  as  a  prostitute." 
Three  months  ago  I  met  a  bright  girl  who  was  maid  at 
a  hotel  where  I  frequently  stopped  in  the  country.  I 
knew  she  must  be  a  new  hand,  so  I  asked  her  her  age, 
her  home,  and  why  she  had  gone  so  far  for  work.  She 
was  twenty-two  years  old  and  her  home  was  in  Tokyo. 
Her  elder  brother  had  borrowed  $8.50  from  an  agency, 
and  her  service  as  a  maid  had  been  turned  over  to  the 
agency  as  security  until  the  money  should  be  returned. 
She  was  light-hearted  but  remarked  that  such  a  custom 
was  "  no  good." 

To-day  Japanese  society  is  divided  into  the  nobility, 
the  gentry,  and  the  common  people.  The  nobles,  in  all, 
number  a  little  less  than  one  thousand.  In  the  order 
of  their  rank,  they  consist  of  princes,  marquises,  counts, 
viscounts,  and  barons.  The  Japanese  have  great  respect 
for  their  nobility.  One  night  at  a  hotel  I  had  given  the 
check  for  my  hat  and  overcoat  to  the  clerk,  when  sud- 
denly he  dropped  the  brass  check  as  if  it  had  burned  him. 
He  rushed  across  the  corridor,  knocking  another  coat 
and  hat  to  the  floor  en  route.  This  was  all  on  account 
of  a  genial  baron  whom  the  boy  had  noticed  waiting  for 
his  coat.  The  baron  was  wholly  unconscious  of  the 
wild  assault  on  space  which  had  been  made  in  his  behalf. 

Slowly  but  surely  changes  are  at  work  which  are  level- 
ling the  people.  When  the  samurai  laid  aside  his  two 
swords,  it  meant  the  breakup  of  the  old  divisions  of 
society.  When  the  factory  and  the  railway  came,  it 
meant  a  radical  change  in  family  life.  In  olden  times, 
framers,  artisans,  and  the  eta  (the  outcasts),  who  con- 
stituted the  bulk  of  the  people,  stayed  in  one  place,  and 


THE  SOCIAL  AND  FAMILY  STRUCTURE      57 

for  generations  their  descendants  followed  the  occupa- 
tions of  their  fathers.  A  family  council  used  to  be  an 
easy  thing,  and  the  elder  brother  could  exact  his  rights 
when  his  brothers  and  sisters  were  at  his  elbow.  But 
to-day,  with  the  increase  of  population,  the  struggle  for 
bread,  the  larger  opportunities  for  all  who  can  leave 
the  family  fireside,  have  come  changes  in  the  family 
system.  The  Japanese  family  did  not  consist  of  father, 
mother,  and  children.  The  family  was  a  unit  consisting 
of  many  relatives  and  many  who  were  adopted  into  the 
circle.  The  family  was  kept  up  both  by  adoption  and 
concubinage.  * 

Business  and  convenience  rather  than  blood  and  love 
was  at  the  basis  of  the  old  family  system.  The  family 
looked  after  its  orphans  and  there  were  no  beggars,  or 
at  least  there  were  few  in  the  land.  An  individual  was 
not  free  to  buy,  sell,  marry,  or  travel,  without  the  con- 
sent of  his  superior,  or  a  family  council.  While  this  is 
largely  true  to-day,  it  is  beginning  to  pass  away,  for  a 
new  individualism  is  coming  from  the  reading  of  Western 
books  and  the  adoption  of  forms  of  Western  civilization. 
The  expansion  of  the  nation  and  new  laws  and  ways  of 
living  are  making  for  individual  liberty. 

It  is  a  question,  however,  if  morally  the  people  have 
been  benefited  by  the  momentous  changes  which  have 
been  going  on  in  society.  The  new  danger  is  that  liberty 
may  run  to  license.  It  will  not  be  a  surprise  if  in  the 
future  there  are  violent  and  troublesome  instances  of 
self-assertion  both  by  individuals  and  by  groups  of  in- 
dividuals. The  imperative  need  is  a  commanding 
morality  by  which  the  people  can  shape  their  lives  ac- 
cording to  the  new  opportunities,  new  responsibilities, 
and  new  temptations  which  confront  them.     Young  men 

*  Even  the  Imperial  line  which  claims  to  have  existed  from 
Jimmu  Tenno,  covering  a  period  of  twenty-five  hundred  years, 
has  resorted  to  adoption  and  concubinage,  for  its  own  perpetua- 
tioo. 


58  THE  FIELD 

and  women  who  go  far  from  the  parental  home  either 
for  study  or  work,  are  a  matter  of  concern  for  statesmen 
as  well  as  parents.  Nine  years  ago,  Baron  Iwasaki  said : 
"  But  unless  we  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  nourishing 
of  our  moral  nature,  how  will  it  be  possible  to  place  our 
progress  on  a  sure  and  permanent  basis  ?  "  * 

On  the  publication  of  the  Root-Takahira  Agreement, 
Count  Okuma  said:  "Taking  advantage  of  the  publica- 
tion of  the  note,  I  would  sound  a  warning  to  the  nation. 
As  a  state,  there  may  be  nothing  in  Japan  to  morally 
deserve  blame;  but  as  a  people,  Japan  may  not  wholly 
escape  being  looked  down  upon  by  foreigners,  on  moral 
and  intellectual  grounds."  Especially  since  the  twelve 
anarchists  were  hung,  there  has  been  a  great  searching 
of  hearts.  Some  would  revert  to  the  classics  for  the 
Orient  has  had  her  Senecas  and  her  Epicuruses.  But  a 
Japanese  writer  says :  "  This  revival  of  the  classics  is 
like  placing  a  mirror  behind  us  when  we  would  see  our- 
selves." On  all  lines — material,  mental,  and  moral — a 
great  mixing  process  has  been  going  on. 

A  new  age  has  come  and  a  new  era  of  spiritual  change. 
Japan's  statesmen  will  be  as  much  concerned  with  in- 
ternal problems  as  with  international  diplomacy.  The 
papers,  the  magazines,  and  reports  of  governmental  con- 
ferences have  increasing  reference  to  the  moral  better- 
ment of  the  people.  This  is  most  hopeful  and  promising. 
A  Japanese  editor  once  wrote :  "  Our  country  is  our  idol 
and  patriotism  our  first  doctrine.  From  the  Emperor 
downwards,  the  majority  have  no  other  religion." 

Loyalty  and  filial  piety  are  not  empty  words  in  Japan. 
Their  full  meaning  can  only  be  grasped  as  one  becomes 
acquainted  with  the  hearts  and  the  experiences  of  the 
people. 

*  Japan  Times. 


VI 
THE   PREVALENCE   OF    IDOLATRY 


Christ's  rest  is  the  rest  of  living  peace,  lifting  upwards.  The 
priests  in  the  temple,  sitting  still,  and  the  old  women  who 
worship  are  at  rest,  but  they  have  no  aspiration.  It  is  stillness 
without  uplift  or  strength.  Their  religion  is  indolence. — A 
Japanese  Opinion,  "  Missionary  Principles  and  Practice,"  p.  350. 

Pass  over  the  earth,  you  may  discover  cities  without  walls, 
without  literature,  without  monarchs,  without  palaces  and  wealth ; 
where  the  theatre  and  the  schools  are  not  known ;  but  no  man  ever 
saw  a  city  without  temples  and  gods,  where  prayers  and  oaths 
and  oracles  and  sacrifices  were  not  used  for  obtaining  pardon  or 
averting  evil. — Plutarch. 

Anglo-Saxon  civilization  is  that  towards  which  Japanese 
aspire  and  to  which  they  are  approaching.  This  is  of  the 
greatest  importance  for  us.  The  missionaries  have  been  ex- 
ponents of  this  civilization.  There  is,  however,  much  yet  to  be 
done ;  for,  from  the  religious  point  of  view,  Japan  is  in  a 
starving  condition.  It  is  most  important  to  have  good  food 
and  good  drink. — A  Japanese  Opinion,  "  Christian  Movement." 

It  is  a  fact  of  immense  importance  that  of  all  the  religions 
mentioned  in  the  Bible,  all  have  died  except  the  Christian.  We 
read  of  Baal  and  Ashtaroth,  and  Chemosh,  Bel,  and  Nebo;  but 
no  man  anywhere  now  bows  at  their  name.  We  read  in  the 
annals  of  Egypt  about  Amen,  and  Kneph,  and  Khem,  and  Seti, 
and  Ra,  and  Turn ;  but  silenced  forever  are  their  praises,  de- 
serted and  in  ruins  are  their  temples. — Alvah  Sabin  Hobart, 
"  Religion  for  Men,"  p.  121. 

The  Japanese  word  Kami,  translated  "  gods,"  has  perplexed 
foreign  scholars  not  a  little,  for  our  word  "  god,"  or  "  deity," 
means  too  much  for  the  word  Kami,  which  is  by  no  means  equal 
in  the  minds  of  the  Japanese  to  our  high  and  holy  God.  .  .  . 
For  instance,  in  the  first  part  of  the  Kojiki  a  peach  is  addressed 
as  a  Kami,  or  god,  a  certain  sword  is  considered  to  be  a  god,  a 
toad  gives  advice  to  the  gods ;  a  pheasant  deity  is  mentioned, 
and  a  colossal  crow  guides  Jimmu  in  his  Eastward  march. — 
J.  C.  Calhoun  Newton,  "Japan,  the  Country,  Court  and  Peo- 
ple," p.  47. 


VI 

THE  PREVALENCE  OF  IDOLATRY 

A  TRAVELLER  who  lands  at  Yokohama,  who  walks 
upon  the  stone  ballast  and  among  the  roomy  ware- 
•  houses  built  upon  lots  wrested  from  the  sea,  who 
visits  the  stores  groaning  under  the  treasures  of  art,  who 
takes  notice  of  the  newspapers,  the  schools,  the  govern- 
mental buildings,  will  be  impressed  with  the  nearness 
to  which  Japan  has  approached  our  own  national  life. 
Further  travel  and  investigation  will  impress  him  with 
the  virility,  the  earnestness,  and  the  activity  of  Japan's 
religions,  and,  if  he  be  a  Christian,  the  prevailing  idolatry 
will  make  him  feel  that,  though  a  first-class  power,  Japan 
stands  spiritually  in  an  isolated  position.  Wherever  he 
goes,  he  finds  temples  and  shrines  more  numerous  than 
police  boxes  and  post-offices.  Few  are  in  decay;  most 
are  kept  in  good  repair.  A  traveller  just  from  India 
and  China,  who  had  visited  a  leading  temple  in  Tokyo, 
was  impressed  with  the  numbers  and  enthusiasm  of  the 
worshippers  who  crowded  to  the  temple's  altars.  He 
said,  "  I  have  never  seen  the  like  anywhere." 

The  temples  are  always  open,  but  there  are  festal  days 
when  special  trains  and  extra  electric  cars  cannot  carry 
the  congestion  of  worshippers.  Adjoining  the  temples,  or 
within  the  temple  courts,  is  usually  a  space  for  little  shops 
where  tea,  lemonade,  cakes,  candies,  trinkets,  souvenirs, 
charms,  idols,  and  rosaries  are  sold.  Fortune  tellers  and 
story  tellers  both  amuse  and  dispense  destiny.  Begging 
priests  regularly  visit  their  own  constituency  and  chant  a 
section  of  Buddhist  scriptures  in  exchange  for  coppers  or 
gifts  of  rice.  Wandering  priests  make  their  circuits  with 
idols  and  shrines  on  their  backs.  In  times  of  sickness 
and  distress,  after  a  death  and  after  a  birth,  the  services 

61 


62  THE  FIELD 

of  a  priest  are  usually  indispensable.  In  summer  time, 
pilgrims  chosen  and  sent  as  representatives  of  a  village 
or  family  wander  far  from  home  to  worship  in  many 
a  distant  temple  and  climb  many  a  sacred  mountain. 
These  pilgrims  usually  have  a  staff  in  their  right  hand, 
with  its  jingling  rings,  a  big  umbrella  hat  of  straw,  straw 
sandals,  and  a  square  of  matting  swung  over  their  backs 
to  shield  them  from  sun  and  rain.  They  invariably  carry 
a  rosary. 

It  is  not  exclusively  the  farmer  or  the  peasant  who 
keeps  alive  the  idolatry  of  the  past.  A  certain  manu- 
facturer goes  in  his  auto  daily  to  worship  his  chosen 
god.  A  noted  professor,  in  spite  of  his  learning,  bows 
to  his  image  of  stone.  The  department  of  shrines  and 
temples  is  a  bureau  of  the  Japanese  Government.  Most 
every  home  has  its  god-shelf,  and  they  who  can  afford 
them  have  exquisite  shrines  overlaid  with  gold  leaf. 
Shrines  and  idols  may  be  seen  at  cross-roads,  in  the 
fields,  on  the  hilltops,  or  in  shady  retreats. 

The  toys,  the  art,  the  literature,  the  history  of  Japan 
are  interwoven  and  intertwined  with  idolatry.  Their 
customs,  their  play,  their  festivals,  their  stories,  their 
theatricals  refer  back  to  the  times  when  the  border  line 
between  the  human  and  divine  was  dim,  back  to  the  times 
when  mountains  talked,  winds  cried,  and  the  sun  and 
moon  were  born  as  a  babe  is  born.  A  neighbour's  little 
girl  at  times  plays  she  is  a  Buddha,  at  which  times  she 
sits  motionless,  with  her  little  limbs  crossed  and  her 
eyes  closed.  How  could  it  be  otherwise  ?  The  crowds  go 
to  the  temples.  Thither  went  their  relatives  and  an- 
cestors. Thither  went  their  heroes,  their  warriors,  their 
statesmen,  their  rulers.  Many  of  these  have  passed  into 
the  Japanese  pantheon,  and  to  this  day  they  retain  their 
seats  among  the  gods.  Such  is  Gongensama,  who  was 
leyasu,  the  great  Shogun.  Such  is  Hachiman,  who  was 
Ojin,  the  son  of  an  Empress.  Such  is  Temmangu,  who 
was  Sugawa,  a  statesman  and  a  scholar. 


THE  PREVALENCE  OF  IDOLATRY        63 

There  seemed  to  have  been  no  limit  as  to  what  might 
slide  over  into  divinity.  Trees,  stones,  and  mountains, 
as  well  as  snakes,  horses,  monkeys,  and  foxes  have  all 
come  in  for  honours.  The  fox  god  is  one  of  the  most 
popular  in  Japan  to-day.  I  was  at  a  noted  fox  shrine,  on 
a  rainy  day,  when  a  man,  dressed  in  his  silks,  squatted 
before  a  dark  recess  in  the  ground  and  prayed  his  prayer 
to  the  cunning  little  denizens  of  mythology. 

How  many  are  actually  adherents  of  idolatry  no  one 
can  say.  There  is  no  formal  admission  or  excommunica- 
tion. There  are  no  rented  pews.  One  can  be  a  Buddhist, 
a  Confucianist,  a  Shintoist,  all  at  the  same  time,  and 
pay  tribute  regularly  to  half  a  dozen  gods  or  goddesses. 
There  are  the  nominal  worshippers  who  swing  with  the 
crowd.  There  are  the  devout  ones,  who  are  painfully 
conscientious.  I  met  an  elderly  woman  at  Minobu,  in 
central  Japan,  who  had  come  all  the  way  from  Korea 
to  worship  at  her  favourite  mountain.  She  made  the 
trip  yearly.  Among  the  hundreds  who  came  and  re- 
turned while  I  was  at  a  certain  temple,  I  was  most 
impressed  by  a  woman  of  about  thirty  years  of  age.  With 
clasped  hands  and  bowed  head,  she  incessantly  repeated 
her  short  prayer.  There  was  all  the  pathos  of  a  heart 
wrung  by  anguish.  She  told  me  that  the  name  of  her 
god  was  Daishi,  but  I  could  get  no  inkling  of  her  woe. 

There  is  an  increasing  number  of  agnostics,  to  whom 
the  whole  phalanx  of  idols  is  ridiculous.  They  often 
assert  to  their  foreign  friends  that  Japan's  idols  are 
relics,  and  her  temple  compounds  but  the  playgrounds 
of  children  and  the  museums  of  a  hoary  past.  Among 
these  agnostics  are  men  of  the  larger  cities,  who  are 
well  read  and  who  have  travelled  extensively.  They 
are  as  clever,  genial,  and  refined  a  lot  of  men  as  one 
could  meet  in  any  section  of  the  world.  Politically, 
financially,  diplomatically,  and  internationally,  these  ag- 
nostics are  the  spirits  who  sustain  Japan's  prestige  as 
a  great  world  power  to-day.    Any  number  of  them  will 


64!  THE  FIELD 

speak  German  and  English  or  French  and  English.  They 
hold  diplomas  from  the  world's  great  universities  and 
can  talk  freely  about  the  pyramids,  the  Monroe  Doctrine, 
flying  machines,  the  new  Swiss  code,  Hamlet,  or  radium. 
Such,  as  a  rule,  are  not  idolaters — but  they  constitute 
the  minority. 

Striking  averages,  one  is  impressed  that  the  general 
conception  of  divinity  is  inferior  and  pantheistic.  One 
occasionally  sees  an  old  idol  built  into  the  wall,  or  it 
may  be  broken  and  ready  to  fall.  Second-hand  stores 
have  a  thriving  trade  in  idols.  The  Hypothec  Bank,  in 
advertising  its  twenty-yen  debentures,  represents  the  god 
Daikoku  pouring  out  showers  of  money.  His  companion 
god,  Yebisu,  is  a  trade-mark  for  a  noted  beer.  A  musical 
company  represents  Buddha  leaning  over  to  catch  the 
strains  issuing  from  the  horn  of  a  phonograph.  The 
Uran  magazine  recently  advertised  a  comedy  of  the  gods, 
in  which  the  seven  gods  of  happiness  were  revised  so 
as  to  include  Billiken  (supposed  to  be  the  American 
God)  and  Mrs.  Billiken.  Their  gods  are  sometimes  pun- 
ished and  beaten.  A  man  was  once  praying  to  Inari,  the 
fox  god.  He  said :  "  Give  me  cunning  and  I  will  give 
you  half  of  all  the  money  I  get."  A  friend  said :  "  You 
have  promised  too  much;  Inari  will  be  satisfied  with 
less."  The  supplicant  replied :  "  Shut  up !  Don't  you 
know  if  Inari  sama  gives  me  cunning  enough  to  get 
wealth,  I  will  be  cunning  enough  to  keep  it  ?  " 

While  one  meets  occasionally  a  carelessness,  a  light- 
heartedness,  and  even  levity  on  the  part  of  the  people 
in  the  treatment  of  their  gods,  there  is,  after  all,  a  serious 
vein  which  is  the  predominating  one.  Religious  liberty 
was  promised  by  the  Constitution,  yet  on  the  day  of  its 
promulgation,  Mr.  Mori,  the  advocate  of  such  liberty, 
was  assassinated  by  a  Shinto  fanatic  for  having,  as  was 
alleged,  raised  the  curtain  of  the  shrine  at  Ise  with  his 
walking  stick.* 

*Otis  Carey,  "A  History  of  Christianity  in  Japan,"  Vol.  II, 
p.  82," 


THE  PREVALENCE  OF  IDOLATRY        65 

Just  two  months  ago  five  hundred  and  fifteen  persons 
were  inducted  into  the  holiness  of  Buddhism  by  touching 
a  golden  razor  at  a  temple  in  Tokyo.  When  the  new 
arsenal  was  built  at  Oji,  a  fox  god  was  removed  from  his 
ancient  seat.  Sickness,  death,  and  frightful  dreams  were 
visited  by  him  upon  the  perpetrators  till  the  popular 
clamour  grew  so  loud  that  the  god  was  restored  to  his 
original  place,  and  a  day  of  rest  was  granted  to  the  la- 
bourers of  the  arsenal.  Two  years  ago  was  dog  year. 
The  superstition  is  that  individuals  born  in  that  year 
will  at  some  time  die  from  the  bite  of  a  dog.  It  was 
also  by  chance  a  year  of  dreadful  floods.  Charms  and 
magic  powders  were  sold  to  immense  crowds,  with  a 
guarantee  of  escape  from  all  calamities.  At  Suitengu's 
shrine  (sea-god),  both  in  Tokyo  and  Yokohama,  people 
trampled  upon  one  another  and  some  were  killed  in  the 
mad  rush  for  the  idol's  panacea.  At  Kudan,  in  Tokyo, 
the  report  was  that  sixty  people  were  carried  away  on 
stretchers  to  hospitals  and  some  were  crushed  to  death. 

What  does  it  all  mean?  It  means  that  the  Japanese 
are  a  very  religious  people.  It  is  an  incontrovertible 
truth  that  the  world  by  wisdom  knows  not  God,  for  "  how 
shall  they  believe  in  Him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard  ?  " 
Every  idol,  every  temple  is  but  a  token  that  the  Japanese 
are  groping  after  the  Father  of  light,  but  likewise  every 
temple,  every  idol  is  a  proof  of  how  far  they  have  wan- 
dered. "  The  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God  "  is  changed 
"  for  the  likeness  of  corruptible  man  and  of  birds  and 
four-footed  beasts  and  creeping  things "  one  sees  in 
Japan  to-day.  The  houses  of  prostitution  leading  to  or 
close  by  some  of  the  most  noted  temples  and  shrines  is 
but  a  twentieth-century  edition  of  conditions  in  Paul's 
own  day. 

Let  us  remember,  however,  that  there  are  many  who 
are  first  who  shall  be  last  and  last  who  shall  be  first. 
Japan  has  this  in  her  favour,  that  though  morally  led 
by  the  non-godly  Confucius,  and  religiously  blighted  fey 


m  THE  FIELD 

atheistic  Buddhism,  her  heart  still  has  hope,  her  masses 
pray,  and  they  believe  that  death  does  not  end  all.  Were 
I  to  choose  between  the  idolatry  of  Japan  and  some  of 
the  gross  forms  of  materialism  taught  in  the  West  for 
the  base  of  a  State  or  Society,  I  would  choose  the  idolatry 
just  as  a  starving  man  would  prefer  grass,  bark,  and 
berries  to  gravel,  ashes,  and  dirt.  Candidly,  my  sym- 
pathies are  more  with  the  idolator  than  the  author  who 
sits  in  an  easy  chair,  surrounded  by  the  blessings  and 
protection  of  a  Christian  civilization,  who  suavely  and 
confidently  writes  a  book  to  prove  that  there  is  no  Father 
God,  no  Christ  His  Son,  no  Revelation,  and  that  our 
whole  moral,  volitional,  and  intellectual  life  is  the  irre- 
sistible or  accidental  result  of  a  violent  process — the 
debris  of  molecular  fireworks  upon  the  cortex  under  our 
scalps. 

A  Christian  can  make  no  apology  for  idolatry,  and 
yet  in  the  long  absence  of  a  true  revelation,  conditions 
in  Japan  are  eloquent  and  pathetic  in  their  witness  to  the 
tenacity  with  which  the  human  heart  clings  to  the  great 
realities  of  life  and  being.  The  wonder  is  that  long  ago 
they  had  not  abandoned  hope,  prayer,  and  every  concep- 
tion of  deity,  and  sunk  to  the  depths  of  materialism  that 
denies  either  angel  or  spirit. 

Let  no  Christian  adopt  a  "  holier  than  thou  "  attitude 
toward  the  idolaters  of  earth,  for  we  stand  by  faith.  By 
the  grace  of  God,  Anglo-Saxons  are  what  they  are  reli- 
giously. With  humility  and  gratitude  we  must  acknowl- 
edge that  by  a  westward  sweep  of  the  Gospel,  the  idol- 
atry of  our  forefathers,  their  Wodens  and  Thors  were 
overturned  to  give  place  for  the  Divine  Man  of  Nazareth. 
Our  own  history,  as  well  as  Japan's  idolatrous  condition, 
proves  the  unfailing  accuracy  of  the  Great  Teacher  who 
said,  "  Neither  doth  any  know  the  Father  save  the  Son, 
and  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  him." 


PART   TWO 

THE    MISSIONARY 


I 

WHAT   THE   MISSIONARY   HAS   DONE 


Everywhere  in  life,  the  true  question  is,  not  what  we  gain,  but 
what  we  do. — Thomas  Carlyle. 

Even  so  ye  also,  when  you  shall  have  done  all  the  things  that 
are  commanded  you,  say,  We  are  unprofitable  servants;  we 
have  done  that  which  it  was  our  duty  to  do. — Luke  xvii.  lo. 

Unto  the  man  of  yearning  thought, 

And  aspiration,  to  do  nought, 
Is  in  itself  almost  an  act. 

Being  chasm,  fire,  and  cataract, 
Of  the  soul's  utter  depths  unsealed: 
But  woe  to  thee,  if  once  thou  yield 

Unto  the  act  of  doing  nought! 

D.    G.    ROSSETTI. 

Such  names  as  those  of  Brown,  Hepburn,  Verbeck,  and  Greene 
are  not  only  household  words  in  New  Japan,  but  were  it  not  for 
the  violation  of  private  confidence,  the  writer  could  show  how, 
in  grave  crises  of  state,  their  advice  was  sought  and  followed. 
Dr.  S.  R.  Brown  trained  some  of  the  very  first  of  the  young 
statesmen  of  New  Japan.  Dr.  J.  C.  Hepburn  has  healed  tens  of 
thousands  of  her  people. — William  Elliott  Griffis,  "  Introduc- 
tion of  American  Missionary  Work  in  Japan,"  p.  ii. 

Don't  tell  us  what  you  have,  show  us  what  you  have  done. 
Don't  point  out  what  you  own,  but  demonstrate  what  you  have 
achieved  through  your  own  efforts. 

It  requires  exactly  the  same  amount  of  brains  to  fall  into  a 
fortune  that  it  takes  to  fall  into  a  puddle. 

What  have  you  created — what  did  you  give  the  world  that  it 
never  before  possessed — with  what  ideas  have  you  fertilized  ad- 
vancement— what  enthusiasms  have  you  aroused — what  have  you 
done  to  make  us  hope  harder  or  strive  farther — what  seed  of 
inspiration  have  you  planted — what  fight  have  you  fought  in  the 
name  of  the  common  good? — Herbert  Kaufman,  Los  Angeles 
Times. 


WHAT  THE  MISSIONARY    HAS  DONE 

LIVING,  teaching,  preaching  Christ,  always,  every- 
where and  under  every  circumstance,  is  the  object 
■^of  every  missionary's  life.  However,  in  a  land 
that  is  non-Christian  and  formerly  was  anti-Christian, 
the  attainment  of  this  ideal  is  only  accomplished  by  a 
division  of  labour.  Some  become  master  builders,  some 
must  be  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,  if  an 
enduring  temple  be  erected  to  God's  praise. 

Missionaries  as  great  and  as  resourceful  are  living 
to-day  in  Japan  as  have  ever  served  the  Church  in  any 
mission  field.  But  there  is  nothing  dramatic  about  their 
lives  because  Japan  has  advanced  as  a  nation,  and  upon 
the  Japanese  Church  is  falling  the  mantle  of  leadership. 
Dewey,  without  the  naval  engagement  ofif  Manila,  would 
have  passed  into  obscurity.  The  battle  made  his  repu- 
tation, but  his  character  and  efficiency  had  been  deter- 
mined previously  by  years  of  quiet  service. 

The  missionary  brought  to  Japan  the  musical  scale 
and  songs  of  good  cheer.  The  first  gospel  song  that  was 
translated  and  sung  was  "  There  is  a  Happy  Land." 
The  translator  was  Jonathan  Goble,  a  missionary  of  the 
Baptist  Church.*  To-day  several  hundreds  of  thousands 
know  the  songs  of  Zion.  Just  now,  not  far  away,  some 
one  is  playing  on  an  organ  "  Shall  We  Gather  at  the 
River  ? "  Two  hundred  thousand  copies  of  the  Union 
Hymnal  have  been  sold  and  thousands  of  copies  of  the 

*  The  same  Mr.  Goble  invented  the  man-pulled  vehicle  with 
two  wheels,  called  the  jinrikisha.  He  applied  to  the  Japanese 
government  to  have  his  invention  recognized  and  rewarded,  but 
no  governmental  action  was  taken. 

69 


70  THE  MISSIONARY 

Sunday  School  Songs.  The  first  missionaries  thought 
they  would  have  to  invent  a  musical  scale  to  fit  the 
Japanese  voice,  but  to-day  one  can  hear  Japanese  quartets 
carrying  all  the  parts  from  tenor  to  bass.  Japan's  ancient 
songs  stir  the  soul,  but  they  appeal  to  grief,  passion,  and 
despair,  and  are  sung  in  a  minor  key.  The  missionaries 
have  taught  Japan  to  sing  of  love,  of  hope,  and  of 
Heaven. 

What  genius  of  to-day  could  trace  the  effect  of  Luther's 
Translation  upon  the  German  race,  or  the  reach  of  the 
Authorized  Version  upon  English-speaking  people  ?  The 
missionary's  greatest  work  has  doubtless  been  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Word  of  God.  The  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  was  completed  in  1880;  the  Old  Testament 
in  1888.  The  permanence  of  the  last  fifty  years  of 
Christian  effort  in  Japan  is  made  doubly  sure  because 
a  few  of  all  classes  are  reading  and  studying  the  Bible. 
It  is  the  timely  leaven  which  will  transform  the  literature 
and  regenerate  the  heart  of  the  nation. 

"  One  of  the  first  lessons  which  came  to  Japan  through 
foreign  missionary  propagandism  was  the  awakening  of 
Buddhism  to  new  life."  *  The  immorality  of  idolatrous 
priests  has  been  rebuked  by  the  introduction  of  Christian 
ethics.  Successful  methods  of  Christian  work  have  been 
adapted  by  the  Buddhist;  for  competition  with  an  edu- 
cated Christian  ministry  they  have  established  many 
schools.  The  essence  of  many  a  priest's  address  on  ethics 
has  been  extracted  from  the  Bible.  Much  that  counts 
for  good  in  the  ancient  faiths  has  been  magnified  and 
energized  for  millions  of  souls  because  of  a  power  and 
an  influence  emanating  from  the  Cross. 

A  young  Japanese  student  concluded  a  talk  to  some 
missionaries  at  Karuizawa  by  saying  his  chief  objection 
to  the  education  that  missionaries  were  giving  the  women 
of  Japan  was  that  the  graduates  "  think  too  much  and 
talk  too  much."     He  was  simply  championing  the  old 

*  William  E.  Griffis. 


WHAT  THE  MISSIONARY  HAS  DONE        71 

ideal  which  would  make  woman  a  toy,  a  servant,  a 
nonentity.  Through  Christianity  the  women  of  Japan 
have  come  to  a  new  consciousness,  a  new  dignity,  a  new 
liberty.  Japanese  women,  in  many  respects,  have  en- 
joyed privileges  above  their  Oriental  sisters;  but  they 
look  to  Christianity  for  the  banishment  of  concubines 
and  the  establishment  of  a  real  home,  a  home  wherein 
the  mother  takes  her  place  at  her  husband's  side,  shares 
with  him  the  respect  due  from  son  and  daughter,  and 
is  shielded  by  him  from  interfering  relatives. 

The  missionary  has  always  stood  for  the  religious  lib- 
erty of  the  people.  Their  presence,  their  spoken  or 
written  words  have  contributed  much  towards  the  tolera- 
tion now  enjoyed.  Before  the  signboards  against  Chris- 
tianity were  removed.  Dr.  R.  S.  Brown  drew  up  an  appeal 
through  the  Evangelical  Alliance  to  the  nations  of  the 
world.  This  was  signed  by  all  the  missionaries  in  Japan. 
About  this  time  (1871)  a  company  of  fourteen  commis- 
sioners left  Japan  for  a  tour  of  the  world.  They  visited 
the  capitals  and  chief  cities  of  the  United  States,  England, 
Holland,  Germany,  Russia,  France,  Belgium.  David 
Thompson,  an  American  missionary  still  at  his  post  in 
Tokyo,  was  the  interpreter  and  financial  agent  for  the 
Commission.  He  took  a  copy  of  the  above  appeal,  which 
in  New  York  City  he  showed  to  Philip  Schafif.  In 
London  the  appeal  was  shown  to  an  assembly  of  The 
Church  Missionary  Society,  who  had  called  Mr.  Thomp- 
son for  a  conference  on  the  situation.  At  Berlin  he 
showed  it  to  Pastor  Prochnow,  and  mailed  a  copy  to 
Bismarck. 

The  Embassy  of  1872,  under  Prince  Iwakura,  and  the 
sweeping  changes  which  followed  from  the  investigations 
of  the  Embassy,  make  it  a  most  important  item  in  the 
governmental  and  historical  development  of  the  country. 
The  visit  of  the  Embassy  was  the  direct  result  of  the 
advice  of  Guido  F.  Verbeck,  an  American  missionary 
who  was  at  that  time  serving  Japan  as  the  president  of 


'72  THE  MISSIONARY 

the  Imperial  University.  Japan's  gratitude  to  Verbeck 
was  shown  by  an  Imperial  Decoration  and  exceptional 
freedom  of  travel  for  himself  and  family.  At  his  death 
a  company  of  soldiers  and  many  officials  were  sent  to 
escort  his  body  to  the  grave,  and  His  Majesty,  the 
Emperor,  expressed  his  sympathy  by  a  gift  of  500 
yen. 

Missionaries  have  made  valuable  contributions  to  the 
literature  concerning  Japan  and  things  Japanese.  The 
first  English- Japanese  dictionary  was  issued  by  Dr.  Hep- 
burn. For  the  general  reader,  one  of  the  best  books  on 
Japan  is  a  handbook  of  "  Modern  Japan,"  written  by 
Ernest  W.  Clement.  "  The  Evolution  of  the  Japanese," 
by  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  is  a  masterly  presentation  of  the 
moral  and  social  aspects  of  Japanese  life.  "  Japan,  the 
Country,  Court,  and  People,"  is  another  good  book,  with 
ample  historical  information,  written  by  J.  C.  Calhoun 
Newton.* 

Two  women  deserve  mention  who  have  made  a  valua- 
ble contribution  to  the  Christian  literature  of  Japan, 
namely.  Miss  E.  E.  Dickinson  and  Miss  Georgiana 
Baucus.  The  latter  lady  was  returning  home  from  her 
furlough  when  she  met  Miss  Dickinson  in  Palestine. 
Opportunities  for  Christian  work  in  Japan  so  impressed 
them  both  that  they  returned  to  Yokohama  together, 
where  they  have  since  made  their  home.  Here,  at  their 
own  charges,  they  have  created  a  new  and  much  appre- 
ciated literature  which,  in  its  religious  as  well  as  artistic 
aspects,  appeals  especially  to  the  Japanese. 

The  United  States  government  has  spent  $2,(X>o,ooo 
and  Massachusetts  $7,000,000  in  an  effort  to  exterminate 
the  gypsy  moth.  It  is  said  to  have  been  introduced  in 
the  United  States  by  the  carelessness  of  a  chambermaid 
who  unlocked  and  opened  the  windows  of  a  screened  room 
of  a  university  professor  who  was  experimenting  with 

*  See  Appendix  A  for  books  on  Japan  written  by  those  who 
are  or  have  been  missionaries. 


WHAT  THE  MISSIONARY  HAS  DONE         73 

silk  spinning  caterpillars.*  Henry  Loomis,  Japan's  mis- 
sionary entomologist,  discovered  the  parasite  called  the 
Ichneumon  Fly,  which  kills  the  gypsy  moth.  He  received 
in  this  connection  the  thanks  of  the  American  Secretary 
of  State,  on  the  recommendation  of  Hon.  James  Wilson, 
Secretary  of  Agriculture,  because  of  his  service  to  the 
American  public.  The  editor  of  the  Boston  Watchman 
wrote,  "  This  discovery  by  a  missionary  promises  to  save 
the  people  in  this  country  more  than  all  the  missions 
in  Japan  have  cost."  During  a  short  residence  in  Cali- 
fornia, some  years  back,  Mr.  Loomis  introduced  into 
America  the  cultivation  of  the  Japanese  persimmon,  by 
distributing  some  50,000  grafts  among  Southern  and 
Pacific  states.! 

Judge  W.  W.  Marrow  was  a  member  of  the  legislative 
committee  which  prepared  the  first  Peace  Conference 
resolution  passed  by  the  American  Congress.  He  said 
at  the  Laymen's  Missionary  Convention  at  San  Francisco : 
"  The  present  missionary  movement  lies  at  the  very  basis 
of  the  future  peace  of  the  nations."  The  missionaries  are 
active  supporters  of  the  Peace  Societies  in  Japan.  Gil- 
bert Bowles,  as  secretary  of  the  American  Peace  Society 
of  Japan,  has  been  especially  active  in  these  lines.  He 
is  an  authority  on  the  question,  and  his  services  are  not 
only  appreciated  in  Japan,  but  known  in  America  and 
other  countries. 

In  the  early  days  the  missionaries  were  the  promoters 
of  most  of  the  eleemosynary  work  of  a  public  character. 
Their  work  even  in  recent  years  is  not  inconsiderable.  A 
little  boy  found  in  the  snow  at  the  home  of  Miss  Frances 
E.  Phelps  led  to  the  opening  of  "  The  Sendai  Christian 
Orphanage."  Miss  K.  Youngman  was  influential  in 
founding   the   "  Meguro    Leper   Hospital."     In   Japan, 

♦  See  article  by  Wm.  L.  Altdorfer,  in  Los  Angeles  Times  for 
September  21,  1912. 

t  Mr.  Loomis,  in  1881,  was  made  agent  of  the  American  Bible 
Society,  in  which  capacity  he  served  thirty  years. 


74  THE  MISSIONARY 

some  133,000  die  annually  from  consumption.  Allen  H. 
Faust  has  made  an  impression  on  Japan  by  his  activities 
on  the  behalf  of  the  sufferers  of  this  disease.  His  book 
in  Japanese,  entitled  "  The  Great  Enemy  of  Society," 
was  placed  in  a  list  of  eighty-five  books  which  the  Educa- 
cational  Department  of  the  government  recommended  for 
popular  education. 

On  Thanksgiving  Day,  1905,  a  company  of  mission- 
aries met  in  the  home  of  M.  B.  Madden,  Sendai,  to  start 
a  movement  in  aid  of  680,000  starving  Japanese.  The 
crops  of  Mayagi,  Fukushima,  and  Iwaki  provinces  were 
a  complete  failure.  Thousands  wandered  from  home  in 
the  snow  and  subsisted  upon  a  nourishment  of  acorns 
and  a  broth  made  from  roots  and  grasses.  This  com- 
mittee of  missionaries  *  sent  cable  calls  for  help  to  the 
United  States,  Germany,  England,  Spain,  France,  Italy, 
Hongkong,  Singapore,  and  Australia.  They  also  started 
a  vigorous  campaign  for  help  among  foreigners  in  Japan. 
The  committee  not  only  received  and  distributed  a  large 
sum  of  money,  but  its  appeals  resulted  in  still  larger  gifts, 
which  came  from  Germany,  England,  China,  and  the 
United  States.  When  Japan  opened  her  treaty  ports,  her 
chief  fears  were  the  influx  of  opium  and  missionaries. 
But  all  during  this  dreadful  winter,  when  the  rice  harvest 
of  51,000,000  koku  the  previous  year  had  fallen  to  38,- 
000,000,  the  missionaries  who  exposed  themselves  through 
snow  and  cold  demonstrated  that  their  presence  in  Japan 
was  of  practical  value. 

Some  years  ago,  Hugh  G.  Murphey  of  Nagoya  opened 
up  a  campaign  against  brothel  keepers.  It  was  a  long 
and  hard  fight  against  the  combined  power  of  money 
and  corruption.  His  heroic  efforts  resulted  in  the  famous 
Regulation  No.  44  of  the  Home  Department  in  October 

♦The  committee,  consisting  of  the  following,  were  all  mis- 
sionaries save  Mr.  Forrest,  who  was  a  teacher  in  a  government 
school :  W.  E.  Lampe,  C.  S.  Davison,  C.  Jacquet,  J.  H.  DeForest, 
M.  B.  Madden,  C.  A.  Forest,  Wm.  Axling. 


WHAT  THE  MISSIONARY  HAS  DONE        75 

of  1900,  by  which  the  iniquity  was  crippled  and  thou- 
sands of  girls  set  free.  Mr.  Murphey  has  told,  in  "  The 
Social  Evil  of  Japan,"  a  thrilling  tale  of  his  experiences 
with  the  princes  of  sin.  The  Salvation  Army  cham- 
pioned the  cause,  and  they,  as  well  as  sympathetic  Japa- 
nese lawyers  and  editors,  contributed  their  part  in  the 
beginning  of  a  reform  movement  that  has  grown  in 
breadth  and  in  intensity. 

Near  the  city  of  Kumamoto,  in  Kyushiu,  is  a  temple 
dedicated  to  Kato  Kiyomasa,  who  was  a  great  persecutor 
of  Christians  and  a  warrior  of  the  Sixteenth  Century. 
This  man  was  deified  because  he  was  supposed  to  have 
been  cured  of  leprosy  by  repeating  the  words  "  Namu 
myoho  renge  kyo,"  the  magic  words  of  the  Nichi  Ren 
sect  of  Buddhism.  Hence  it  is  that  this  temple  has  al- 
ways been  a  resort  for  lepers.  Miss  H.  Riddell,  who 
came  out  as  a  missionary  under  the  Church  Missionary 
Society,  visited  this  temple  and  was  much  moved  by  the 
sight  of  their  sufferings  and  their  vain  calls  for  help. 
She  at  once  began  a  relief  work  for  them,  which  has 
resulted  in  her  splendidly  equipped  compound  at  Kuma- 
moto, called  "  The  Hospital  for  the  Resurrection  of 
Hope."  The  despair  and  wretchedness  of  idolatry  at 
Kumamoto's  noted  temple,  contrasted  with  the  hope  and 
fruitage  of  love  given  in  the  name  of  Christ,  has  no 
better  illustration  in  all  Japan.* 

*  There  are  30,000  lepers  in  Japan.  The  missionaries  were  the 
first  to  establish  asylums  for  their  aid.  The  agitation  in  their 
behalf,  led  by  Miss  Riddell,  resulted,  in  1907,  in  the  government 
establishing  five  leper  asylums  for  leper  beggars.  Miss  Riddell's 
institution,  founded  in  1895,  is  a  thoroughly  equipped  hospital, 
in  which  there  is  a  doctor,  a  steward,  a  chaplain,  and  three 
nurses.  Among  the  leper  patients  is  a  guild  of  twenty  mem- 
bers, which  meets  daily  for  intercessory  prayer  for  the  sick,  the 
suffering,  and  the  lost  all  over  the  world. 


II 

THE   UNFAILING   FRIEND 


Lord,  pardon  what  I  ha\'e,been,_§aactify  what  I  arn^ordeji 
that  1  slmlt  "5e,  "that  Thine  be  the  glory  and  mine  the  etgnjal 
"saivationr  ^  ~~ 

The  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  could  do  nothing  without 
that  Living  Force  and  that  ever  Present  and  Beloved  Person. 
We  must  acknowledge  our  complete  weakness,  and  sterility  also 
in  our  work  unless  He  is  ever  in  our  midst,  in  our  hearts  and 
lives,  and  at  suitable  times,  openly  confessed. — Josephine  E, 
Butler. 

I  would  not  dare  to  come  to  Thee, 

All  worldly  prospects  blighted, 
And  lay  upon  the  altar  of  the  crucified, 

A  life  the  world  has  slighted; 

But,  in  life's  dewy  hours. 

With  bright  hopes  on  the  wing, 
My  life,  my  love,  my  all, 
To  Thee,  I  bring. 
— Mrs.  Mary  Holbrook  Chappell,  Japanese  Evangelist,  Au- 
gust, 1912. 

If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man. 

And  only  a  man,  I  say, 
Of  all  mankind,  I  will  cleave  to  him. 

And  to  him  will  I  cleave  alway. 

If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God, 

And  the  only  God,  I  swear, 
I  will  follow  Him  through  Heaven  and  Hell, 

The  earth,  the  sea,  and  the  air. 

Personally,  I  have  no  more  use  for  a  dead  Christ  than  I  have 
for  a  molten  image.  The  Christ  who  once  did  loving  deeds  and 
does  them  no  more,  who  once  spoke  words  of  comfort,  but  has 
been  silent  for  centuries,  means  nothing  to  me.  A  Christ  who 
could  heal  the  sorrows  of  the  body  and  soul  once,  but  whose 
power  has  perished  thousands  of  years  ago,  is  no  Christ  for  me. 
It  is  the  Christ  whose  fellowship  I  can  share,  and  whose  presence 
I  can  realize  in  the  fellowship  of  those  who  love  Him,  that  I 
want ;  the  Christ  who  in  danger  says  now,  as  once  He  said : 
"  Fear  not,  I  am  with  thee." — Dr.  Wilfred  T.  Grenfell,  "  A 
Man's  Helpers,"  p.  75. 


11 

THE  UNFAILING  FRIEND. 

THE  missionary  who  goes  out  to  the  field  goes 
forth  strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  obedience  to  his 
authoritative  command.  But  Httle  does  he  dream 
how  much  the  presence  of  the  Lord  is  imperative  for 
his  success  and  continuance  on  the  field.  Before  he  sails, 
and  some  time  after  landing,  there  are  many  things  which 
combine  to  make  him  strong  and  hopeful.  There  is 
the  vision  of  multitudes  for  whose  salvation  he  has  of- 
fered himself.  There  are  the  final  farewells  and  the 
blessings  of  hundreds  who  may  have  shaken  his  hand 
and  wished  him  "  Godspeed."  There  are  in  his  mind  such 
great  men  as  Carey,  Livingstone,  Morrison,  and  Verbeck, 
whose  memory  inspires  and  whose  victories  make  the 
new  recruit  eager  for  the  fray.  But  as  weeks  pass  into 
months,  and  months  into  years,  the  foam  of  his  enthusiasm 
breaks  on  the  rocks  of  rugged  experience.  Things  seen 
are  not  as  things  read  about.  Things  encountered  are 
not  as  things  dreamed  about.  The  haste  and  sweep  of 
action  formed  and  determined  upon  are  now  met  by 
many  delays.  "  The  Hero,"  "  The  Saint,"  "  The  Sacri- 
ficing Soul  " — that  friends  had  whispered  in  his  ears  at 
home,  he  finds  on  occasions  which  increase  with  pro- 
voking acceleration,  to  be  a  fiction  of  the  admiration  of 
the  many  who,  for  the  most  part,  have  now  forgotten 
him. 

But  long  before  this  full  discovery  of  his  real  self,  the 
missionary  has  found  his  true  source  of  power.  For- 
merly, he  had  recited  the  words :  "  And  lo,  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world."  Some 
significance  of  course  attached  to  the  promise,  but  now 

79 


80  THE  MISSIONARY 

they  have  a  new  meaning.  They  shine  with  an  increas- 
ing brightness.  They  take  on  hfe.  He  sees  not  only 
an  ancient  promise,  not  simply  a  spiritual  stay  for  the 
pietist,  but  he  sees  a  contract  that  is  daily  fulfilled  in  all 
of  his  experiences.  Jesus  becomes  banker,  and  backer, 
as  well  as  Over  Lord  and  great  High  Priest.  He  looks 
up  to  the  Risen  One  as  "  faithful  and  true,"  crowned 
with  many  diadems,  clothed  "  in  a  garment  sprinkled 
with  blood,"  and  "  on  his  garment  and  on  His  thigh  a 
name  written:  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords."  He 
sees  the  Holy  One,  the  Chiefest  among  the  thousands, 
and  altogether  lovely,  waiting  to  see  the  travail  of  his 
soul  and  be  satisfied.  He  sees  the  one  who  was  near 
Stephen,  who  called  forth  Paul,  who  was  near  Paul  at 
Corinth,  and  said  to  him :  "  Be  not  afraid,  but  speak 
and  hold  not  thy  peace." 

"  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always  "  grows  in  meaning,  grows 
with  experience,  grows  in  preciousness.  The  missionary 
comes  to  believe  that  the  Sovereign  of  the  Nations  is 
really  interested  in  his  own  spiritual  Kingdom,  interested 
now,  working  now,  and  if  necessary,  he  will  move  the 
earth  and  shake  the  foundations  of  heaven  to  bring  about 
His  triumphal  reign  from  east  to  west  and  from  sea  to 
sea.  The  missionary's  success,  all  things  considered,  is 
in  the  measure  that  he  works  with  his  Divine  Partner 
and  can  stay  his  soul  when  weary,  upon  the  breast  of 
the  Nazarene.  Be  it  in  Japan  or  any  other  field,  few 
missionaries  would  remain  long  were  it  not  for  the  One 
who  lives,  who  works,  who  reigns.  Jesus  is  in  reality 
the  mainspring,  the  motor  of  energy,  the  cataract  of 
power  in  all  missionary  endeavour.  The  missionary  in 
Japan,  as  in  other  fields,  sees  the  multitudes  who  throng 
the  temples,  but  were  it  not  for  Christ,  these  multitudes 
would  cease  to  excite  his  sympathy.  Just  as  one  is  lost 
in  the  immensity  of  starlit  space,  just  as  the  mind  is 
staggered  in  attempting  to  encompass  its  vastness,  just 
so  the  missionary  is  overwhelmed  by  the  surging  sea  of 


THE  UNFAILING  FRIEND  81 

idolatry  about  him.  Will  the  tide  ever  ebb?  Whither 
will  they  go  ?  What  are  we  among  so  many  ?  And  then 
there  emerges  the  scene  near  Galilee  where  the  multi- 
tudes were  fed,  and  later  when  Peter  heard,  "  What  is 
that  to  thee,  Follow  thou  Me."  Then  conscious  of  a 
Divine  presence  with  whom  all  things  are  possible,  he 
recalls  "  That  many  shall  come  from  the  east  and  the 
west,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven."  He  thenceforth  takes 
heart.  A  new  courage,  a  new  grip,  a  new  unction  is 
gathered  by  a  look  into  the  face  of  the  Lord.  There- 
after he  scatters  far  and  wide  the  good  seed,  and  deep 
into  the  hearts  of  men  he  buries  the  Gospel  leaven, 
believing  though  he  sees  it  not,  that  the  whole  shall  be 
leavened  and  the  harvest  shall  come  thirty,  sixty,  and  a 
hundred-fold. 

The  missionary  in  Japan,  as  elsewhere,  has  inspiring 
experiences  when  great  crowds  press  around  him  to 
hear  the  word  of  God.  But  it  must  be  confessed,  as  to 
Japan,  that  great  crowds  are  not  the  ordinary  experience. 
The  audiences  are  usually  small.  Though  courteous 
treatment  is  the  rule,  yet  the  missionary  is  conscious  of 
an  undercurrent  of  feeling  that  he  is  the  agent  of  another 
superstition,  that  he  is  presumptuous  in  proposing  an 
absolute  religion;  that  he  might  better  stay  at  home  or 
return  and  work  among  sinners  of  his  own  land.  At 
these  times,  he  recalls  One  who  came  from  a  far  country, 
who  toiled  where  He  was  not  wanted,  who  was  ugred 
to  depart.  Who  against  the  most  bitter  hatred  and 
opposition,  persisted  in  doing  what  His  Father  had  sent 
Him  to  do.  And  so  the  missionary  toils  on,  not  because 
he  is  wanted  by  the  multitudes  in  Japan,  or  is  invited 
by  them  to  Japan,  but  because  Christ  sent  him,  and  be- 
cause precious  ones  for  whom  Christ  died  must  know 
of  the  great  redemption,  know  it  immediately,  and  know 
it  everywhere,  whether  in  the  city,  town,  or  mountain 
retreat. 


82  THE  MISSIONARY 

If  the  multitudes  about  the  missionary  were  left  free  to 
follow  the  natural  cravings  of  their  own  hearts,  if  it 
were  possible  to  let  each  one  choose  between  the  Man 
of  Sorrows  and  some  hideous  idol  of  unresponsive  stone, 
the  work  would  be  done  and  done  quickly.  But  there 
are  family  restraints,  traditional  prejudice,  national  con- 
ceits, buttressed  by  centuries  of  experience  and  educa- 
tion which  must  be  corrected,  removed,  or  allayed,  before 
the  many  may  join  in  an  open  anthem  of  "  Blessed  is  he 
that  Cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord."  At  such  times, 
the  missionary  recalls  the  prejudice,  the  conceit,  the  re- 
straint about  them  who  heard  Jesus  in  His  own  day,  and 
how  few  really  became  His  disciples.  A  few  years  later, 
churches  were  multiplied,  and  out  of  the  same  seemingly 
dead  and  unresponsive  mass  came  many  who  went  every- 
where, preaching  the  word. 

It  is  not  within  himself  that  the  missionary  finds  his 
source  of  power,  but  it  is  in  the  Captain  of  his  salva- 
tion. Back  to  Christ,  back  to  His  promises,  back  to  His 
prophetic  words  relating  to  the  spread  of  the  Kingdom, 
and  the  actual  account  of  that  spread  during  nineteen 
centuries  of  the  victories  of  heralds  and  martyrs — here 
is  his  source  of  power  and  thus,  too,  he  exclaims,  "  I 
can  do  all  things  through  Christ  who  strengtheneth  me." 
It  is  not  because  of  any  special  sanctity,  or  of  any  rare 
goodness  that  the  missionary  leans  upon  the  Unseen 
Arm.  It  is  because  of  his  weakness,  it  is  because  of  the 
difficulties,  because  of  discouragements,  that  he  is  braced 
by  the  words,  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  I  have  overcome  the 
world." 

I  remember  one  hot  summer's  day  when  I  was  riding 
on  a  train  in  a  third-class  car.  It  was  just  after  sun- 
down and  one  by  one  my  fellow  passengers  left  the  car 
as  station  after  station  was  passed  in  that  wearisome 
mountain  journey.  Left  alone,  a  feeling  of  loneliness 
came  over  me.  What  was  I  doing  ?  What  had  I  done  ? 
What  could  one  perspiring,  tired  missionary — just  one—* 


THE  UNFAILING  FRIEND  83 

one  so  imperfect,  accomplish?  What  could  he  do  to 
stem  the  tide  of  idolatry?  With  the  hosts  of  unbelief 
reinforced  by  a  yearly  birthrate  of  many  tens  of  thou- 
sands, how  little  indeed  would  the  brief  day  of  one  mis- 
sionary's effort  avail!  Just  then,  a  kerosene  light  flick- 
ered, and  went  out.  Then  another  sputtered  and  but 
faintly  lighted  the  car.  Gloom  increased  with  the  dark- 
ness until  the  last  light  went  out,  when  my  fainting 
heart  rallied  to  look  to  the  One  whom  I  had  forgotten. 
Doubts  vanished,  faith  rallied,  and  again  the  promise, 
"  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always,"  filled  my  soul  with  assur- 
ance and  soothing  peace.  Though  the  car  was  dark,  I 
involuntarily  sang  for  joy  the  praises  of  Him  who  can 
still  tempests  and  who  has  pledged  Himself  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  "  will  convince  the  world,  of  sin,  of  righteousness, 
of  judgment."  The  words  that  came  to  me  that  turned 
my  darkness  to  day  were : 

"  Jesus,  Thou  truest,  Thou  brightest  and  fairest, 
Worshipped  by  angels  above. 
Enter  and  seal  for  Thyself  my  heart's  portals 
Seal  by  Thy  fathomless  love. 

"  Dearer  than  all  to  me,  all  to  me,  Jesus, 
Dearer  than  life,  friend  or  kin  ; 
These  with  fond  hopes  and  all  else  may  fail  me, 
Thou  ever  faithful  hast  been. 

"  Save  me  and  guide  me,  though  often  I  wander, 
Lift  me  and  win  me  away, 
Out  of  myself,  wholly  into  Thy  presence, 
Wholly  for  Thee  and  for  aye. 

"  At  home  or  abroad,  on  the  land  or  the  ocean. 
Wherever  Thy  Spirit  may  lead, 
Oh,  grant  that  my  soul  forever,  my  Jesus, 
On  Thee,  the  true  manna,  may  feed. 


84.  THE  MISSIONARY 

"  Help  me  to  bear  and  to  do  Thy  good  pleasure ; 
To  tell  of  Thy  wonderful  grace; 
To  tell  it  on  earth  and  sing  it  in  heaven 
When  I  bow  at  Thy  feet,  face  to  face. 

"  Keep  very  close  to  me,  close  to  me,  Jesus, 
Let  me  within  Thee  abide ; 
Wash  every  stain  and  break  down  every  idol; 
Ever  keep  close  to  my  side. 

Stripped  from  every  missionary's  heart  all  that  pertains 
to  vanity  or  deceit,  let  it  stand  out  in  its  full  and  humiliat- 
ing nakedness  before  God,  and  who  is  he  who  will  not 
confess  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  Christ  that  he  is  what 
he  is  and  where  he  is?  Christ  will  never  have  His  true 
place  in  the  world  until  the  world  and  Christ  have  their 
true  place  in  the  heart  of  the  Church.  When  Christ,  as 
Supreme  Lord,  is  enthroned  in  the  heart  of  the  Church, 
then  will  it  cry,  "  Hasten,  oh  God  of  Harvests  and 
thrust  forth  more  reapers.  Unite  Thy  Church  in  the 
Holy  Unity  of  Father  and  Son  that  the  World  may  be- 
lieve." 

The  Church  may  have  its  feasts  and  socials,  but  it  must 
not  forget  that  God's  great  table  is,  for  the  most  part,  sur- 
rounded by  empty  chairs,  waiting  to  be  filled  by  mil- 
lions who  hunger  for  the  Bread  of  Life.  The  Church 
may  lavish  thousands  of  dollars  upon  art,  architecture, 
and  all  that  aesthetic  taste  can  conjure  to  make  colours 
blend,  and  pillar  and  arch  conform  to  harmonious  pro- 
portions, yet  it  ought  to  feel  a  great  burden  of  debt  to 
God — the  obligation  to  send  forth  master  workmen  who, 
from  the  great  world  quarry,  even  out  of  every  nation 
under  heaven,  are  constructing  God's  true  temples. 


Ill 


JOYS  AND    REWARDS   OF   THE 
SERVICE 


You  can  do  anything  if  you  smile  and  keep  your  teeth  to- 
gether. 

As  dew  is  drawn  upwards  in  rain  to  descend, 
Your  thoughts  drift  away  and  in  destiny  blend. 
You  cannot  escape  them,  or  petty  or  great, 
Or  evil  or  noble,  they  fashion  your  fate. 

I  should  not  like  you,  if  meant  by  God  to  be  a  great  missionary, 
to  die  a  millionaire.  I  should  not  like  it,  were  you  fitted  to  be 
a  missionary  that  you  shrivel  down  into  a  King. — Spurgeon. 

It  should  be  emphatically  reiterated  that  the  issue  of  the  Chris- 
tian campaign  in  Japan  hinges  upon  the  Japanese  Christian 
forces  incalculably  more  than  upon  the  foreign  mission.  Any 
missionary  policy  that  puts  the  missionary's  work  above,  or  out- 
side the  Japanese  Church,  or  that  relies  upon  the  number  of 
missionaries  more  than  upon  their  quality  and  their  ability  to 
work  congenially  with  the  Japanese,  will  stir  up  strife  and  end 
in  disaster. — Edinburgh  Conference,  1910,  Vol.  I,  p.  66, 

When  a  resolve  or  fine  glow  of  feeling  is  allowed  to 
evapourate  without  bearing  practical  fruit,  it  is  worse  than  a 
chance  lost:  it  works  so  as  positively  to  hinder  future  resolu- 
tions and  emotions  from  taking  the  normal  path  of  discharge. 
There  is  no  more  contemptible  type  of  human  character  than 
that  of  the  nerveless  sentimentalist  and  dreamer,  who  spends 
his  life  in  a  weltering  sea  of  sensibility,  but  never  does  a  con- 
crete manly  deed. — William  James,  "Talks  on  Psychology  and 
Life's  Ideals,"  p.  70. 

The  understanding  is  not  the  sole  authority  in  the  sphere  of 
moral  and  religious  belief.  Rationalism  has  been  defined  as  "  A 
usurpation  of  the  understanding."  There  are  moral  exactions  and 
dictates  which  have  a  voice  not  to  be  disregarded.  So  likewise 
are  there  instinctive,  almost  irrepressible,  instincts  of  feeling  to  be 
taken  into  account.  It  is  the  satisfaction  of  the  spirit,  and  not 
any  single  organ  or  function  of  the  soul,  which  is  felt  to  be  the 
criterion  of  full-orbed  truth. — George  P.  Fisher,  "  The  Grounds 
of  Theistic  and  Christian  Belief,"  revised  edition,  p.  19. 


Ill 

JOYS  AND  REWARDS  OF  THE  SERVICE 

MANY  of  the  joys  of  the  missionary's  life  are 
common  to  all  who  labour  in  the  vineyard  of 
the  Lord.  Some  of  the  missionary's  joys  are 
unique  and  most  of  them  stand  out  prominently,  because 
necessity  and  prudence  compel  the  missionary  to  magnify 
his  joys  and  minimize  his  sorrows.  The  missionary  de- 
serves no  credit  for  being  an  optimist.  A  pessimist  or 
an  optimist  he  will  surely  become.  The  optimist  sticks, 
triumphs,  and  has  pleasure  in  his  work.  The  missionary 
is  not  a  superstitious  individual,  but  of  all  men  he  is 
liable  to  see  spooks.  On  these  occasions  the  optimist 
tightens  his  belt,  knocks  the  spook  in  the  solar  plexus, 
then  laughs  the  telepathic  nonsense  out  of  memory.  A 
daily  once  told  how  a  little  yellow  dog  tied  up  a  whole 
railway  division  for  five  hours.  The  dog  ran  into  the 
despatcher's  office  and  the  despatcher  thought  the  dog 
was  mad.  The  despatcher  just  took  time  to  hold  up 
every  train  on  the  division  and  then  he  and  the  operators 
vacated  the  office.  A  policeman  who  came  later,  found 
the  dog  was  not  mad  and  chased  it  away.  The  despatcher 
then  returned  and  the  trains  moved  on.  Missionaries 
sometimes  see  yellow  dogs.  Usually  they  are  little  and 
sometimes  they  are  mad,  but  they  are  scared  away  by 
one  joyful  yell  of  the  optimist. 

The  unrest  of  Buddhism  in  Japan  to-day  is  a  joyful  in- 
dication to  us  missionaries.  When  I  erected  our  Church 
in  north  Tokyo,  across  the  street  from  an  ancient  Buddhist 
temple,  they  at  the  same  time  erected  a  modern  kinder- 
garten building.  I  passed  a  Buddhist  hall  the  other 
day,  which  looks  for  all  the  world  like  a  church  building ; 

87 


88  THE  MISSIONARY 

in  fact  I  inquired:  "What  new  church  is  that?" 
Buddhism  knows  that  it  must  dress  up  and  brace  up  or 
be  swallowed  in  the  onward  moving  swell  of  Christian 
effort.  They  are  singing  Buddhist  songs  to  our  Christian 
tunes.  They  have  introduced  preaching  services  and  a 
marriage  service.  They  have  opened  Sunday  Schools 
and  Orphanages.  A  new  movement  among  Buddhists 
does  away  with  idols,  priests'  robes,  and  all  the  outward 
trappings  of  superstition.  Buddhism  has  been  driven 
to  found  higher  schools  of  education.  It  recognizes  in 
Christianity  no  ordinary  force  and  it  is  clear  to  the  leaders 
that  the  potential  influence  of  the  Cross  is  so  great  that 
they  must  radically  change  their  plans  or  lose  their  hold 
upon  their  own  followers  and  upon  the  nation. 

We  especially  rejoice  in  the  way  the  knowledge 
of  God's  word  is  being  extended  throughout  the  land. 
But  a  few  decades  ago  a  Japanese  would  have  run  from 
the  Bible  as  from  a  rattlesnake.  Ten  years  ago  there 
were  very  few  stores  in  Tokyo  where  a  Bible  could  be 
purchased ;  but  the  demand  has  now  become  so  general 
that  ordinary  bookstores  have  placed  the  Bible  in  stock. 

It  is  a  great  joy  to  preach  Christ  in  one's  own  tongue. 
It  is  a  greater  joy,  after  years  of  labour,  to  make  Him 
known  in  a  new  tongue.  I  well  remember  my  first 
sermon  in  Japanese.  After  it  was  completed,  the  thought 
came  over  me  that  I  had  conquered  after  a  hard  fight. 
I  looked  back  through  weeks  and  months  of  effort  and 
waiting  which  had  run  into  years.  I  looked  forward  into 
the  future  to  the  open  gate  wherein  stood  fifty  millions  of 
the  earth's  representative  people,  waiting  for  the  life- 
giving  word.  I  had  been  practising  upon  my  bookcases, 
but  with  these  thoughts,  a  wave  of  emotional  joy  came 
over  me,  which  compelled  me  to  be  seated,  because  I  was 
too  happy  to  stand  up. 

Paul  said :  "  Yea,  making  it  my  aim,  so  to  preach  the 
Gospel  not  where  Christ  was  already  named,  that  I  might 
not  build  upon  another  man's  foundation."     It  was  his 


JOYS  AND  REWARDS  OF  SERVICE        89 

rule  "  To  preach  the  Gospel  even  unto  the  parts  beyond 
you,  and  not  to  glory  in  another's  province  in  regard  of 
things  made  ready  to  our  hand."  This  is  a  joy  peculiar 
to  the  missionary.  Last  year  I  went  with  a  Japanese 
friend  and  preached  in  a  town  of  two  thousand,  which 
had  never  had  a  sermon,  a  Christian  talk,  or  a  visiting 
minister,  since  the  morning  stars  sang  together.  But 
two  months  ago  I  was  in  a  town  of  four  thousand,  within 
twenty-five  miles  of  Tokyo,  which,  saving  one  visit  of 
ten  years  before,  had  never  heard  the  Gospel.  To  be 
face  to  face  with  a  soul  who  is  seeking  Christ,  to  be  the 
first  to  tell  of  His  love  and  salvation,  while  a  very 
solemn  responsibility,  is,  at  the  same  time  a  joy  beyond 
which  there  is  none  greater. 

The  Japanese  minister  can  speak  his  own  language 
better  than  the  missionary.  He  can  stand  the  climate 
better,  live  more  economically,  understand  his  own  people, 
their  customs  and  their  history  better  than  the  foreign 
missionary.  The  ultimate  evangelization  of  Japan  must 
rest  with  the  Japanese  themselves.  It  is  a  joy  to  be  liv- 
ing in  a  day  when  God  has  called  forth  from  this  people 
not  only  some  twelve  hundred  ministers,  but  to  notice  that 
among  them  is  a  growing  band  of  leaders,  who  have 
strength  and  ability.  Among  these  leaders  may  be  men- 
tioned Masashisa  Uyemura,  who  ministers  to  a  good-sized 
church  in  central  Tokyo.  He  has  made  a  helpful  and 
lasting  impression  upon  Japan  for  Christ's  Church.  He 
preaches  in  a  commodious  modern  building  and  his  church 
is  rich  in  good  works.  I  attended  the  services  on  an 
Easter  Sunday.  Mr.  Uyemura's  sermon  was  on  the  res- 
urrection of  Jesus.  It  was  beautiful  because  of  its  sim- 
plicity and  rich  because  of  its  faith.  When  we  can  have 
a  hundred  men  his  equal  and  a  hundred  churches  as 
strong,  it  will  be  a  happy  day  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  in 
Japan.  The  audience  of  this  church  has  an  average  of 
286  in  the  morning  service  and  66  at  night.  The  total 
contributions   for  last  year  were  $2621.28.     The  total 


90  THE  MISSIONARY 

membership  is  890.  Of  this  number,  41  are  in  foreign 
countries,  163  in  country  places,  131  come  regularly.  The 
balance  is  composed  of  43  children,  267  men,  and  245 
women. 

Time  and  again  I  have  been  impressed,  and  joyfully 
impressed,  with  the  readiness  with  which  God's  sheep  in 
Japan  catch  the  call  of  the  Good  Shepherd.  They  know 
His  voice.  Just  as  the  rose  to  the  sunshine,  just  as  the 
babe  to  his  mother's  breast,  just  so  hungry  hearts  the 
world  over  turn  to  Christ  if  He  is  lifted  up  before  them. 
Like  the  dovetailings  of  a  cabinet-maker,  Christ  fits  into 
the  needs  of  every  heart.  Japanese  are  always  impressed 
by  the  ethics  of  Jesus,  and  His  sinless  life  is  ofttimes 
the  searchlight  that  awakens  within  them  the  conscious- 
ness of  sin.  A  student  said :  "  Of  all  our  studies,  ethics 
is  the  most  tedious.  Our  teachers  tell  us  we  must  be 
honest,  truthful,  virtuous, — all  of  which  we  know  very 
well,  but  they  impart  to  us  no  moral  power  to  do  these 
things."  This  is  the  great  defect  of  Japan's  moral  teach- 
ing. The  transforming  power  of  Christ  in  the  lives  of 
the  Japanese  who  have  accepted  Him,  is  our  best  eviden- 
tial argument.  What  we  see  before  our  eyes  magnifies 
both  our  joy  and  our  faith. 

It  is  a  joy  to  feel  that  we  are  known,  trusted,  and 
loved  by  the  Japanese.  The  language  is  a  great  barrier. 
Much  of  race  prejudice  arises  from  the  fact  that  aliens 
do  not  know  one  another.  When  I  first  came  to  Japan 
I  thought  I  would  love  the  Japanese.  But  curiosity 
and  national  conceit  on  my  own  part,  and  difl[idence 
and  secrecy  on  their  part,  made  the  cultivation  of  love 
a  matter  of  growth.  The  more  I  came  to  know  them, 
the  more  I  learned  to  love  them.  It  was  four  or  five 
years,  however,  before  I  could  feel  that  I  was  really 
taken  into  the  innermost  heart  of  my  nearest  Japanese 
friends,  which  was  about  the  time  the  language  ceased 
to  be  a  barrier  in  conversation.  Now,  secret  and  con- 
fidential matters  pass  between  us  freely.    In  an  hour  of 


A  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  IN   KOFU 


A    SUNDAY  SCHOOL   IN   TOKYO 


JOYS  AND  REWARDS  OF  SERVICE        91 

spiritual  or  material  need  we  can  fall  back  upon  our 
Japanese  friends  in  the  same  way  that  we  can  rely  upon 
those  who  are  American  born. 

The  new  ties  and  friendships  do  not  annul  our  love 
of  home  nor  weaken  the  cable  of  interest  that  binds  us 
to  our  native  land.  It  is  an  inspiration  which  has  a  sus- 
taining power  in  times  of  stress  or  weakness  to  feel  that 
relatives  and  acquaintances  at  home  are  interested  in  us, 
love  us,  and  bear  us  up  to  the  throne  of  God.  Cortez 
burnt  his  ships  and  Caesar  his  bridges,  but  such  a  course 
means  defeat  to  the  missionary.  The  missionary  body  is 
like  the  vanguard  of  an  army.  The  army  may  be  leagues 
away,  but  the  line  of  communications  must  be  kept  open. 
If  wires  are  cut,  then  signal  flags  and  rockets  are  neces- 
sary for  the  unity  and  safety  both  of  the  army  to  the 
rear  and  the  guard  at  the  front. 

The  successful  travelling  man  of  to-day  keeps  in  touch 
with  his  house.  His  house,  be  it  a  factory  or  a  whole- 
sale store,  keeps  in  touch  with  him.  The  missionary  has 
come  to  distribute  spiritual  goods  for  the  church.  He 
is  not  the  agent  of  a  mission  board.  He  is  the  agent  of 
the  church.  He  must  at  once  create  a  demand  for  his 
spiritual  commodity  and  furnish  the  supply.  Breaking 
away  into  new  territory  is  no  easy  job. 

Letters  from  the  homeland  come  as  bracers,  spurs  and 
stimulants.  Sometimes  we  receive  letters  from  home 
which  come  like  a  burst  of  sunshine  on  a  cloudy  day, 
like  a  gushing  spring  in  a  desert  land.  Most  people 
forget  that  missionaries  are  human.  We  like  to  get 
natural  letters,  letters  from  the  heart,  informal  and  full 
of  news.  Tell  your  missionary  of  your  last  revival.  Tell 
him  how  your  city  knocked  out  the  saloon.  Tell  him 
confidentially  how  you  got  soaked  through  your  recent 
rubber  plantation  investment.  Tell  about  the  new  baby 
and  the  colour  of  his  hair,  if  he  has  any.  If  a  new  book 
of  special  worth  has  just  come  to  your  library,  tell  him 
the  publisher  that  he  may  buy  it.    It  need  not  always  be  a 


92  THE  MISSIONARY 

religious  book.  "  Travels  in  Arabia,"  "  Pigs  is  Pigs," 
or  "  Why  Jim  Sunday  remained  a  Bachelor,"  would  help 
to  bring  exhilaration,  humour,  and  romance  into  his  life. 

It  is  a  joy  to  feel  that  one  is  the  messenger  of  the 
churches,  but  it  is  a  greater  joy  to  feel  that  God  has 
sent  us  forth,  and  that  angels  are  looking  on,  and  that 
we  are  fulfilling  a  1900-year-old  prophecy :  "  And  this 
Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole 
world  for  a  testimony  unto  all  nations."  We  delight  in 
our  work  because  it  is  God's  work.  The  world  places 
no  value  on  our  efforts  now.  So  it  has  been  with  many 
an  artist's  canvas.  One  century  later,  two  centuries 
later,  the  dusty  and  faded  painting  has  sold  for  a  fortune. 
We  plant,  many  others  water,  and  God  all  along  will 
give  an  increase  and  place  an  ultimate  estimate  on  our 
labours,  which  no  one  can  truly  value  now.  We  rejoice 
in  the  immediate  fruit  of  our  labours,  but  the  larger  joy 
is  in  the  harvest  to  come.  Angels,  if  they  could  envy, 
might  well  envy  and  covet  our  position. 

We  stand  at  the  beginnings  of  a  tiny  stream;  we  can 
count  the  pebbles  along  the  shore;  we  can  number  the 
trees  and  name  the  shrubbery;  but  this  tiny  Christian 
stream  in  Japan  will  flow  on.  It  will  widen,  deepen, 
gather  volume,  and  become  a  mighty  river.  The  mis- 
sionary in  Japan  is  not  throwing  his  life  away.  His  ef- 
forts will  not  be  extinguished  by  famine,  by  war,  or 
tidal  wave.  The  best  of  his  life,  the  truth  that  he  has 
taught,  will  enter  into  the  formation  of  this  mighty  na- 
tion now  in  reconstruction.  Heaven  is  all  right  for  the 
weary  and  storm-tossed, — but  for  a  place  of  work,  for 
a  place  of  joy  because  of  victories  wrought  in  Christ's 
name,  there  is  no  spot  in  the  universe  comparable  to  this 
world  of  ours.  Not  only  the  poor,  the  sick,  the  maimed, 
but  likewise  the  sin-enslaved  are  always  with  us  and 
whenever  we  will  we  "  can  do  them  good."  If  it  were 
not  for  the  weakness  of  our  own  vain  hearts  and  the 
excruciating  limits  of  pain,  one  might  wish  to  sip  from 


JOYS  AND  REWARDS  OF  SERVICE        93 

the  cup  of  immortal  youth  and  remain  here  on  God's 
footstool  as  long  as  there  is  evil  to  overthrow  or  cap- 
tives to  be  set  free. 

Back  of,  and  underneath,  our  joy  is  our  faith.  In  a 
sense,  our  joy's  measure  is  our  faith's  proportion.  The 
general  who  has  the  map  of  the  territory,  who  has  the 
secret  plans  of  the  enemy,  who  has  men  and  guns,  am- 
munition and  provisions,  may  well  rejoice.  We  can 
prove  nothing,  we  can  demonstrate  nothing  as  a  general 
may  state  to  his  council  of  war.  The  cable  of  an  elevator 
may  be  black  and  greasy;  it  may  not  be  inviting  to  the 
touch,  nor  brilliant  as  jewels  are  brilliant,  but  cut  your 
cable  and  down  goes  your  car.  Even  so,  faith  is  a  small 
item.  It  is  much  ridiculed  and  often  takes  a  humble 
seat  at  the  throne  of  knowledge,  yet  the  whole  mis- 
sionary enterprise  hangs  on  the  faith  cable.  Cut  it,  and 
missions  would  vanish  as  sound  into  the  air. 

William  Salter  said :  "  As  the  essence  of  courage  is  to 
stake  one's  life  on  a  possibility,  so  the  essence  of  faith 
is  to  believe  that  the  possibility  exists."  We  believe  in 
Jesus,  in  His  resurrection,  in  His  divinity.  To  us  they 
are  facts.  We  do  not  place  them  in  the  category  of 
possibilities.  And  yet,  after  all,  we  walk  by  faith  and  not 
by  sight.  If  I  did  not  believe  in  the  verities  of  the  New 
Testament  I  would  not  remain  in  Japan  thirty  days.  We 
are  not  here  to  spread  a  new  moral  culture,  to  dethrone 
Buddha  from  his  seat  in  the  heart  of  the  nation,  or  to 
place  the  crucifix  above  or  below  a  lotus  blossom.  We 
have  been  sent  by  the  King  of  kings,  that  His  mild 
and  saving  sway  may  bless  the  hearts  of  all  who  take 
up  their  Cross  and  follow  Him.  Thus  our  joy,  its  be- 
ginning, its  maintenance  and  its  fulness  are  not  in  our- 
selves or  our  own  works,  but  in  "  Jesus  Christ ;  whom  not 
having  seen,"  we  "  love ;  on  whom,  though  now  "  we  "  see 
him  not,  yet  believing,"  we  "  rejoice  greatly  with  joy 
unspeakable  and  full  of  glory." 


IV 
THE   MISSIONARY'S   HOME    LIFE 


The  missionary  stations  are  the  outposts  of  Christian  civiliza- 
tion. Each  missionary,  with  his  home  and  his  staff,  forms  a 
nucleus  about  which  gathers  an  influence  far  in  excess  of  the 
numerical  list  of  converts. — William  H.  Taft,  Laymen's  Mis- 
sionary Convention  at  Washington. 

It  seems  to  me  that  if  the  Japanese  are  to  be  Christianized 
as  a  whole  that  missionaries  will  have  to  be  more  devoted  in 
their  work.  They  will  have  to  take  part  less  in  social  affairs  and 
give  themselves  heart  and  soul  to  their  heavenly  mission. — Arch- 
bishop NicoLAi,  Japan  Evangelist,  March,  1912,  p.  108. 

O  Lord,  Brother  and  Friend,  Redeemer  and  King!  The  wise 
men  brought  to  Thee  in  Thy  babyhood  jewels  and  spices,  frankin- 
cense and  gold,  and  myrrh.  Show  me  what  I  can  give  to  add 
lustre  to  Thy  crown,  to  rejoice  Thy  heart  on  high,  and  every- 
thing in  me  and  of  mine  shall  be  a  joyful  sacrifice  to  Thee. 

The  daily  life  of  a  missionary  is  not  only  a  constant  sermon, 
but  to  a  certain  extent,  an  exposition  of  Western  ways.  It 
would  be  worth  while  to  send  Christians  to  the  Orient  merely 
to  show  the  fulness  and  richness  of  a  Christian  life,  for,  after 
all,  the  example  of  an  upright  person,  living  a  life  of  service 
according  to  the  Christian  ideal,  is  more  eloquent  than  any 
sermon — it  is  the  unanswerable  argument  in  favour  of  our 
religion. — Wiluam  Jennings  Bryan. 

Oh,  my  son,  life  does  not  consist  in  the  abundance  of  things 
possessed  but  in  the  character  one  has.  The  best  character  is 
formed  under  discipline,  so  you  must  learn  self-control.  Sin 
always  hurts.  Garfield  said  to  himself,  "  I  must  always  be  with 
Garfield,  so  it  is  important  that  he  be  right,  for  I  do  not  want 
to  be  tied  to  bad  company."  Remember,  Harry,  my  boy,  that 
wherever  you  may  go  you  will  have  Harry  Garst,  Esquire,  a 
companion,  so  do  what  you  can  to  make  him  such  a  person  as 
you  enjoy. — Charles  E.  Garst,  in  a  letter  to  his  son. 


IV 

THE  MISSIONARY'S  HOME  LIFE 

THE  missionary,  in  going  to  a  foreign  land,  neces- 
sarily brings  a  great  many  changes  into  his  own 
life  and  imposes  upon  his  family  a  way  of  living 
that  is  strange  and  unknown  in  his  own  country.  If 
he  is  to  hold  up  in  the  stress  of  work,  do  his  best,  and 
abide  many  years  on  the  field,  it  is  imperative  that  as 
little  change  be  introduced  into  his  way  of  living  as  is 
possible.  The  first  missionaries  to  Japan  had  many  hard- 
ships and  inconveniences  in  travel,  dwellings,  and  food 
which  have  all  disappeared  to-day.  It  is  fortunate  for 
the  missionary  and  his  work  that,  so  far  as  his  living 
is  concerned,  he  can  live  in  Japan  to-day  very  much  as 
he  would  live  at  home. 

The  Japanese  are  great  travellers.  They  know  how 
foreigners  live  in  their  respective  lands.  The  whole 
movement  in  Japan  is  decidedly  foreign  in  all  that  per- 
tains to  dress,  food,  and  the  furnishings  of  the  home. 
Hence,  Japanese  have  little  respect  for  the  missionary 
who  would  come  to  Japan  and  reside,  eat,  and  dress  as 
do  the  poorer  Japanese.  Such  a  missionary  would  be 
marked  as  inferior,  and  his  influence  be  greatly  cur- 
tailed. 

Years  ago,  when  we  were  coming  to  Japan,  an  elderly 
lady  elicited  a  promise  from  us  that  we  would  carry 
her  compliments  and  good  wishes  to  a  friend  of  hers  who 
had  gone  out  before  us  as  a  missionary.  On  inquiry 
as  to  the  whereabouts  of  the  friend,  we  were  dreamily 
told  that  she  was  in  Jerusalem.  Another  party  wanted 
us  to  hand  over  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  the  Philippines. 
When  it  comes  to  drawing  a  picture  of  the  daily  life 

97 


98  THE  MISSIONARY 

of  the  missionary,  his  home  and  surroundings,  the  ma- 
jority of  people  at  home  miss  the  mark  as  widely.  There 
are  still  individuals  who  think  a  missionary  should  live 
in  a  tent  or  cave  in  the  mountains;  that  his  best  days 
should  be  spent  sweltering  in  the  tropics,  dreaming  of 
the  comforts  of  icebergs  and  a  diet  composed  of  snow- 
balls, or  that  his  sole  allowance  should  be  rice  enriched 
with  grasshoppers  or  fish  eggs;  as  for  a  bed,  he  may 
have  his  couch  upon  the  floor,  consisting  of  grass  and 
pine-needles ;  as  for  books,  he  needs  none,  unless  it  is 
"  Josephus  "  and  Foxe's  "  Book  of  Martyrs."  Such  a 
missionary  might  survive  in  some  sunny  and  fruit-em- 
bowered island,  surrounded  by  coral  reefs,  in  the  south 
Pacific,  but  not  in  Japan. 

Some  missionaries  live  in  a  foreign  dwelling,  some 
in  a  Japanese  home.  It  is  the  purpose  of  most  mission 
boards  to  house  their  missionaries  in  foreign  dwellings. 
Our  first  dwelling  was  foreign  built.  It  had  two  stories 
and  a  yard  that  covered  five-twelfths  of  an  acre.  Within 
the  yard  were  trees  and  shrubbery.  Save  the  three 
winter  months,  there  was  always  some  tree  or  plant 
in  bloom.  Around  the  yard,  after  a  time,  we  were 
enabled  to  erect  a  six-foot  galvanized  iron  fence.  The 
fence  marked  a  boundary  line  between  Japan  and  Amer- 
ica. Without  the  fence  flowed  the  busy  traffic  of  Tokyo. 
We  could  hear  the  shouts  of  children  who  played  in  the 
streets,  the  cry  of  the  street  hawker,  and  all  around  by 
day  and  night  the  beat  of  temple  drum  and  bell.  Within 
the  fence  we  had  our  own  little  world.  Here  our  chil- 
dren played  in  the  yard  and  rolled  upon  the  green  grass. 

The  missionary's  dwelling  is  his  castle.  He  has  pic- 
tures on  the  wall  which  have  been  brought  from  America. 
Usually  he  has  a  morning  worship  in  English  and  an 
evening  worship  in  Japanese.  Through  the  home  he  cap- 
tures for  the  King  of  kings  many  a  curious  caller  who 
may  have  come  to  practise  his  English  upon  the  family. 
After  a  journey  of  many  days  in  the  country,  living  on 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  HOME  LIFE         99 

Japanese  food  and  sleeping  on  the  floor,  the  missionary 
returns  to  his  home,  to  the  laugh  of  his  own  children, 
to  a  foreign  mattress  and  Irish  potatoes.  The  mission- 
ary's home  and  what  it  contains  stand  for  more  than 
a  dwelling.  In  miniature,  it  is  his  only  representation 
of  his  native  land  and  life.  Here  he  breathes  his  own 
atmosphere.  Here  he  can  do  and  speak  as  he  pleases. 
Hitherward,  when  oppressed  by  the  prevalent  idolatry, 
when  touched  by  a  feeling  of  pity,  because  of  scenes  of 
poverty  and  sin,  he  can  flee  as  to  a  city  of  refuge. 
"  Home,  sweet  home  "  has  a  large  meaning  and  a  peculiar 
charm  in  a  foreign  land. 

However,  there  are  croakers  who  set  other  frogs 
croaking  if  an  oil  painting,  an  Estey  organ,  an  easy 
couch,  or  a  window  adorned  with  potted  plants  is  found 
in  a  missionary's  home.  A  lady  from  the  United  States 
once  dined  in  a  mission  home  which  had  pheasant  for 
dinner.  The  pheasant  in  that  part  of  Japan  cost  ten  cents, 
and  a  chicken  would  have  cost  fifty  cents.  The  lady, 
who  had  received  freely  of  the  hospitality  of  the  mis- 
sionary, returned  to  America  and  said  that  she  believed 
less  in  missions  than  ever  because  of  the  extravagance 
of  the  missionaries.  In  New  York  City  a  pheasant  toque 
hat  costs  twenty-five  dollars.  In  China,  where  a  certain 
missionary  lived,  pheasants  were  on  sale  for  five  cents 
apiece.  A  wealthy  man  in  the  States,  who  was  support- 
ing this  missionary,  asked  him  to  give  the  items  he  had 
had  for  dinner  on  a  certain  day.  As  pheasant  happened 
to  be  their  meat  item  on  that  particular  day,  the  ignorant 
rope-holder  dropped  the  missionary  and  his  support. 

The  missionary  who  resides  in  a  Japanese  house  may 
be  fairly  comfortable  if  glass  doors  and  windows  are 
set  in  place  of  the  airy  paper  or  wooden  doors ;  if  heavy 
paper  is  spread  under  the  straw  mats  and  if  oilcloth  is 
placed  upon  the  halls  to  keep  out  the  damp  and  cool 
winds  of  winter.  He  may  have  his  stoves,  but  the  pipes 
must  be   supported   by   wiring  them   to   upright  poles 


100  THE  MISSIONARY 

placed  in  the  ground.  I  cannot  forget  going  into  a  mis- 
sionary's home  in  north  Japan  during  the  month  of 
January.  It  was  a  Japanese  house^  heated,  to  be  sure, 
by  stoves,  but  the  cold  air  found  easy  access,  so  that  you 
could  see  your  breath  in  every  room.  In  the  sitting 
room  v^as  a  cradle;  there  was  a  little  pillow;  there 
were  the  tiny  spreads  and  the  dainty  ribbons  attractively 
hung.  Love  had  been  busy  and  anticipation  ran  high 
awaiting  Heaven's  best  gift.  And  when  it  came,  the 
young  mother  would  not  have  exchanged  her  home  for 
a  palace. 

The  problems  connected  with  child  life  and  their  edu- 
cation are  most  complex  on  the  mission  field.  The 
mother  must  be  school  teacher,  seamstress,  and  hostess 
for  frequent  guests  and  many  callers.  Mission  Boards 
should  have  combined  long  ago  in  the  establishment  of 
schools  in  every  great  field,  for  the  education  of  the 
children  of  missionaries.  Large  sums  are  spent  for  the 
education  of  aliens  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  uni- 
versity. Occasionally  a  family  will  retire  from  the  field 
for  the  education  of  the  children  rather  than  face  the 
problems  of  separation  and  limited  income. 

There  are  some  things,  however,  which  are  gained 
by  the  general  lack  of  educational  facilities.  The  children 
gain  by  being  with  parents  in  their  tender  years.  The 
parents  gain  from  the  cheer  of  child  life  and  the  smiles 
which  help  to  banish  the  loneliness  of  isolation.  Again, 
the  community  about  the  missionary's  home  gains  be- 
cause there  in  their  midst  stands  the  silent  and  potent 
influence  of  a  Christian  home.  The  children  of  mission- 
aries reflect  the  lives  of  their  parents,  with  whom  they 
are  thrown  so  exclusively.  They  pick  up  the  Japanese 
language  readily  and  are  frequently  found  imitating  the 
manners  and  customs  of  their  surroundings.  Though 
foreign  born,  they  have  every  mark  of  the  home-born 
child.    Especially  in  theology  are  they  precocious. 

A  little  girl,  during  her  blessing  at  the  noon  meal,  said, 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  HOME  LIFE       101 

"  Lord  bless  these  potatoes,  and  help  them  to  be  thankful 
to  us  for  eating  them."  A  little  boy,  far  in  the  interior 
of  Japan,  at  his  evening  prayer,  always  named  a  long  list 
of  persons  upon  whom  he  would  solicit  the  Divine  favour. 
One  evening  he  closed  his  prayer  thus :  "  And  Lord  bless 
the  Buddhists  and  help  us  to  wipe  them  off  the  face  of 
the  earth."  Two  little  boys  in  Tokyo  had  been  forbidden 
to  make  purchases  on  the  Lord's  Day.  Shortly  after  they 
came  home  on  the  forbidden  day  with  a  sack  of  bananas. 
They  became  penitent  and  knelt  to  ask  for  forgiveness. 
After  a  joint  confession,  one  thus  concluded :  "  But,  Lord, 
we  thank  you  for  that  nice  ripe  banana  you  let  us  eat 
on  the  way  home."  A  child  now  in  his  teens,  when  about 
seven  years  old  had  a  discussion  with  another  boy  who 
had  been  reared  in  India.  The  debate  settled  upon  the 
nationality  of  God.  The  boy  from  India,  raised  under 
British  influence,  declared  that  God  was  an  Englishman. 
The  other  boy  said  he  was  American.  The  discussion 
waxed  hot  and  hotter  until  the  mothers  interceded  to 
save  them  from  blows.  Two  little  girls  on  Sunday 
were  at  play  hauling  stones.  Their  mother  reminded 
them  that  it  was  Sunday,  but  they  surmounted  the  diffi- 
culty by  saying :  "  But,  mamma,  we  are  playing  it  is 
Saturday." 

Missionaries  sometimes  bring  out  their  furniture  from 
the  United  States.  If  they  do  not,  they  must  buy  at 
second-hand  stores  or  depend  upon  furniture  made  to 
order.  The  import  duty  is  very  high,  hence  an  invoice 
and  cost  of  any  articles,  new  or  old,  should  be  reported 
both  to  the  Consul  and  the  Receiving  Agent  at  the  port  of 
entry.  Clothes,  quilts,  books,  pictures,  nicknacks,  and 
kitchen  utensils  should  always  be  brought.  Any  mis- 
sionary in  Japan  could  put  to  good  use,  if  he  had  them, 
a  phonograph,  a  kodak,  a  typewriter,  a  bicycle,  a  magic 
lantern,  a  sewing  machine,  and  a  musical  instrument. 
They  can  be  bought  in  Japan,  but  if  already  in  posses- 
sion, they  should  be  brought. 


lOa  THE  MISSIONARY 

Missionaries,  as  a  rule,  have  servants.  We  have  two 
in  our  home.  The  girl  has  been  with  us  twelve  years, 
the  man  ten.  They  became  Christians  in  our  own  home. 
They  are  married  now,  and  have  a  sweet  little  boy  who 
calls  me  his  good  papa.  These  two  servants  of  ours  have 
their  own  servant  to  take  care  of  the  boy.  Servants  in 
Japan  are  as  thick  as  flies.  It  is  a  poor  Japanese  indeed 
who  cannot  have  a  servant.  A  boy  who  called  the  other 
day  said  that  there  were  three  in  the  Japanese  family 
where  he  served,  but  they  had  only  five  servants.  Go 
to  a  store  and  buy  ten  yards  of  muslin.  You  order  from 
the  clerk,  he  orders  his  assistant^  and  the  assistant  will 
order  his  servant,  and  after  waiting  and  waiting,  the 
bundle  is  brought,  goods  measured,  cut,  tied  in  a  pack- 
age, change  brought,  and  so  forth.  Time  consumed,  ten 
minutes.  We  pay  our  servants,  all  told,  twelve  dollars 
and  a  half  a  month,  and  they  feed  and  clothe  themselves. 
They  do  our  washing,  ironing,  buying,  cooking.  They 
save  us  more  than  their  pittance  amounts  to  every  month ; 
they  save  our  nerves  and  time,  so  that  we  are  free  to 
give  ourselves  to  the  work  for  which  we  were  really  sent. 
No  mastifif  could  be  more  faithful  than  our  male  servant. 
He  goes  on  errands,  sends  telegrams,  is  the  escort  of 
the  wife  and  children  at  night,  and  a  handy  man  for 
anything  all  day  long.  I  was  in  a  palatial  home  not  long 
ago,  in  the  United  States,  furnished  with  mahogany 
furniture,  velvet  carpets,  silverware,  lace  curtains,  etc. 
The  owners  had  an  automobile,  horses  and  carriages,  a 
telephone,  a  laundry  near  by,  a  grocer,  a  baker,  and 
candlestick  maker.  Yet  the  dear  wife  of  this  home  could 
not  even  afford  one  servant!  (Took  their  meals  across 
the  way).  And  you  ask,  pray  tell  us  how  can  a  mis- 
sionary afford  servants  ?  Well,  that  belongs  to  the  mys- 
teries of  the  Orient. 

The  missionary's  home  serves  as  an  auditorium  for  all 
sorts  of  gatherings,  sewing  classes,  cooking  classes,  and 
religious   meetings    for   women;    sometimes    the    whole 


THE  MISSIONARY'S  HOME  LIFE       103 

church  will  gather  for  a  social ;  sometimes  there  is  the 
celebration  of  a  marriage;  sometimes  there  are  classes 
for  inquirers  and  classes  for  the  study  of  English.  At 
all  times,  day  or  night,  the  door  must  be  open  for  callers. 
Sometimes  it  is  a  fellow-worker  who  has  called  for  con- 
sultation and  sometimes  it  is  a  Christian  who  has  called 
for  a  word  of  encouragement;  sometimes  an  earnest 
seeker  comes  to  be  courted  to  the  narrow  way ;  sometimes 
it  is  a  stranger  comes  as  on  an  exploring  expedition, 
or  investigation  of  the  foreigner  and  his  ways.  A  great 
deal  of  precious  time  is  wasted  in  this  way,  yet  some- 
times a  few  hours  seemingly  spent  in  vain  bring  in  big 
returns. 

One  night  a  friend  called  with  two  young  men  whom 
he  introduced  as  his  acquaintances.  They  came  about 
4:30  P.M.,  stayed  to  supper,  and  tarried  till  after  nine 
o'clock.  They  had  learned  about  Christianity  and  had 
the  beginnings  of  faith,  but  they  had  not  come  to  the 
point  of  a  full  surrender  to  Christ.  We  wasted  no  time 
on  ordinary  civilities.  We  turned  at  once  to  the  Scrip- 
tures and  read  many  portions  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
We  knelt  and  prayed  together.  They  were  very  much 
in  earnest  and  wanted  to  receive  baptism  that  night.  It 
was  a  wintry  night  and  a  steady  rain  had  been  falling 
for  some  hours.  Notwithstanding,  we  went  down  to  a 
riverside  and  there,  in  the  rain,  by  the  light  of  a  lantern 
held  under  an  umbrella,  I  baptized  those  two  boys.  One 
was  the  son  of  a  wealthy  man.  He  is  to-day  one  of 
Japan's  most  successful  and  bold  evangelists.  The  other 
boy  entered  college  to  prepare  for  the  ministry.  He  no 
doubt  would  be  preaching  to-day  had  not  consumption 
driven  him  from  school  back  to  the  mild  climate  of  his 
father's  house. 


TOURING  THROUGH   VILLAGE 
AND   BYWAYS 


It  is  easy  for  the  fool,  especially  the  learned  and  scientific 
fool,  to  prove  that  there  is  no  God,  but,  like  the  murmuring 
sea,  which  heeds  not  the  scream  of  wandering  birds,  the  soul 
of  humanity  murmurs  for  God,  and  confutes  the  erudite  folly 
of  the  fool  by  disregarding  it. — J.  Service,  quoted  in  "  The  Chris- 
tian View  of  God  and  the  World,"  p.  74. 

I  dreamed  I  was  in  a  churchyard  at  midnight.  Overhead  I 
heard  the  thunder  of  distant  avalanches  and  beneath  my  feet 
the  first  footfalls  of  a  boundless  earthquake.  Lightnings  gleamed 
athwart  the  church  windows,  and  the  lead  and  iron  frames 
melted  and  rolled  down.  Christ  appeared  and  all  the  dead  cried 
out:  "Is  there  no  God?"  And  Christ  answered:  "There  is 
none.  I  have  traversed  the  worlds,  I  have  risen  to  the  suns, 
with  the  milky  ways  I  have  passed  athwart  the  great  waste  of 
spaces  of  the  sky;  there  is  no  God.  And  I  descended  to  where 
the  very  shadow  cast  by  Being  dies  out  and  ends,  and  I  gazed 
out  into  the  gulf  beyond  and  cried,  'Father,  where  art  Thou?' 
But  answer  came  none,  save  the  eternal  storm  which  rages  on. 
We  are  orphans  all,  both  I  and  you.  We  have  no  Father."  Then 
the  universe  sank  and  became  a  mine  dug  in  the  face  of  the  black 
eternal  night  besprent  with  a  thousand  suns.  And  Christ  cried: 
"  Oh,  mad  unreasoning  Chance ;  knowest  thou — Thou  knowest 
not — where  thou  dost  march,  hurricane-winged,  amid  the  whirl- 
ing snow  of  stars,  extinguishing  sun  after  sun  on  thy  onward 
way,  and  when  the  sparkling  dew  of  constellations  ceases  to 
gleam  as  thou  dost  pass  by?  How  every  soul  in  this  great 
corpse-trench  of  a  universe  is  utterly  alone."  And  I  fell  down 
and  peered  into  the  shining  mass  of  worlds  and  beheld  the 
coils  of  the  great  Serpent  of  eternity  twined  about  those  worlds ; 
these  mighty  coils  began  to  writhe,  and  then  again  they  tightened 
and  contracted,  folding  round  the  universe  twice  as  closely  as 
before ;  they  wound  about  all  nature  in  a  thousand  folds,  and 
crashed  the  worlds  together.  And  all  grew  narrow  and  dark 
and  terrible.  And  then  a  great  immeasurable  bell  began  to 
swing  and  toll  the  last  hour  of  time,  and  shatter  the  fabric  of 
the  universe,  when  my  sleep  broke  up,  and  I  awoke.  And  my 
soul  wept  for  joy  that  it  could  still  worship  God — my  gladness 
and  my  weeping  and  my  faith,  these  were  my  prayer. — Jean 
Paul  Richter. 


V 
TOURING  THROUGH  VILLAGE  AND  BYWAYS 

UP  to  1899,  freedom  of  travel  and  residence  in 
Japan  was  limited  to  a  few  cities.  In  these 
cities  the  consuls  of  each  nation  looked  after  his 
own  nationals,  and,  so  far  as  sovereignty  was  concerned, 
Japan  relinquished  all  her  rights  over  foreigners  as  long 
as  they  remained  within  the  specified  cities.  This  pro- 
vision, called  extra  territoriality,  was  very  humiliating 
to  Japan.  Great  was  the  rejoicing  of  her  statesmen 
when  it  was  abolished  in  the  new  treaties  of  fourteen 
years  ago.  And  great,  too,  was  the  joy  of  the  mission- 
aries, because  henceforth  they  could  travel  beyond  the 
twenty-five-mile  limit  around  the  port  cities.  Formerly, 
if  they  went  farther  they  had  to  secure  a  passport. 

Now,  the  whole  Empire  is  opened  to  the  messenger 
of  the  Cross.  In  no  land  may  one  travel  more  safely. 
There  are  no  brigands  in  the  mountains  nor  will  lone 
robbers  hold  up  a  stage  at  night.  I  was  riding  with  a 
veteran  missionary,  on  the  main  line  from  Tokyo  to 
Kyoto  not  long  ago,  and  he  remarked  how  things  had 
changed.  "  It  does  not  seem  long  ago  that  I  took  this 
same  journey  of  three  hundred  miles  by  jinrikisha,"  he 
said.  The  missionary's  main  dependence  when  away 
from  the  railway  line,  and  when  too  tired  to  walk,  is 
the  stage,  the  bicycle,  or  the  jinrikisha.  The  country 
highways  are  smooth  and  well  kept.  Everywhere  the 
jinrikisha  man  is  available,  who,  rain  or  shine,  will  run 
with  you  at  a  lively  pace.  Occasionally  he  may  tip  you 
over  and  apologize,  even  when  he  skins  his  shins  and 
you  fall  on  top  of  him.  I  have  disembarked  from  jin- 
rikishas  in  every  conceivable  fashion,  but  the  most  ex- 

107 


108  THE  MISSIONARY 

hilarating  is  to  tip  directly  over  backwards.  With  re- 
lays, one  can  easily  make  one  hundred  miles  a  day  on 
level  roads.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  jinrikisha's 
centre  of  gravity  is  unnecessarily  elevated,  they  are  pref- 
erable to  the  ordinary  one-horse  stage.  How  I  do 
love  these  rollicking,  four-wheeled  beehives,  with  leather 
straps  used  in  the  similitude  of  springs!  My  last  ride 
was  in  company  with  twelve  others  who  were  jammed 
tightly  into  our  boxed  cell.  The  driver  mounted  and 
shouted,  his  assistant  blew  his  horn,  and  off  we  flew. 
We  contented  ourselves  on  the  fact  that  we  could  wiggle 
our  toes  and  fingers  and  blink  our  eyes.  One  ambitious 
lady  passenger  hooked  her  towel  over  a  stay  above  and 
clung  to  it  wildly  while  she  carried  on  an  audible  con- 
versation, notwithstanding  the  rattle  and  bang  of  our 
lurching  schooner.  What  a  relief  it  was  when  our 
hansom  got  stuck  in  the  mud  on  the  shady  side  of  a  hill. 
Some  of  us  rolled  out  and  had  the  luxury  of  stretching 
our  muscles  in  helping  our  sweaty,  balking  horse  out 
of  his  dilemma. 

Sometimes  a  missionary  may  float  down  a  river  in 
a  boat  or  sometimes  his  track  may  lead  over  a  chain 
of  mountains.  In  either  case,  the  scenery  would  be 
enchanting,  and  everywhere  the  evidences  of  idolatry 
will  make  him  feel  that  his  mission  is  a  worthy  one. 
At  an  elevation  of  seven  thousand  feet,  with  a  gorge 
below  and  a  cliff  above,  I  called  the  attention  of  my 
porter  to  a  banner  that  waved  in  the  mountain  breeze. 
He  said  it  was  an  offering  to  the  god  of  the  mountain. 
Another  time  our  boatman  suddenly  bent  over  the  edge 
of  the  boat,  washed  his  hands,  and  scooping  some  water 
into  his  palm,  he  emptied  it  into  his  mouth  and  rinsed 
it  briskly.  He  then  clapped  his  hands  and  seemed  to  be 
talking  to  some  one  among  the  trees  on  the  shore.  In 
a  bend  of  the  river  we  had  come  close  to  a  shrine,  and 
this  explained  it  all. 

One  Lord's  Day,  not  far  from  my  hotel,  I  saw  a  shapely 


TOURING  THROUGH  YHLLAGE         109 

mountain  some  two  miles  away.  The  mountain's  dense 
growth  of  pine  looked  inviting.  As  I  had  not  been  long 
in  Japan,  I  decided  to  retreat  thither  and  thus  rid  myself 
of  the  sight  of  idols  and  temples.  I  began  the  mountain's 
ascent.  But  here  was  a  shrine.  I  left  the  main  road  to 
follow  a  path,  but  where  it  joined  another  path  there  was 
another  shrine.  Clambering  up  over  roots  of  trees  and 
rocks  to  the  main  road  again,  I  found  a  good-sized 
temple.  On  inquiry,  I  found  that  on  the  mountain  sum- 
mit was  another  temple.  This  Sunday's  experience 
taught  me  that  it  was  impossible  to  get  away  from  idol- 
atry in  Japan,  and  that,  furthermore,  the  most  beautiful 
retreats  and  attractive  sights  had  long  ago  been  dedi- 
cated to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  and  the  gods. 

Wherever  you  may  go  in  Japan  you  will  find  good 
hotels.  Tourists  on  the  main  routes  of  travel  can  be 
cared  for  in  foreign  styles.  The  missionary  on  his  tours 
puts  up  at  a  Japanese  hotel,  at  which  he  usually  pays 
from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  for  supper,  bed,  and  breakfast. 
In  addition,  about  twenty  cents  is  paid  for  tea  money 
as  a  present  to  the  hotel  keeper  and  five  or  ten  cents  is 
given  to  the  maid  who  has  served  the  food  and  looked 
after  the  room.  Both  on  arrival  and  departure,  the  pro- 
prietor and  a  number  of  servants  come  to  the  front  door, 
and  with  many  bows  and  oft-repeated  words,  the  guest  is 
made  to  feel  that  he  is  an  important  individual.  On 
arrival  at  a  hotel,  the  first  act  is  to  remove  one's  shoes. 
If  an  old  customer,  he  is  led  to  his  own  room  and  imme- 
diately he  is  served  with  tea  and  cakes  or  fruit,  and 
a  firebox  with  some  live  coals  of  charcoal^  upon  which 
is  a  pot  of  hot  water  that  is  left  to  simmer  away  its 
welcome  in  voluminous  clouds  of  steam.  As  there  is  no 
furniture  to  bother  and  no  bedsteads,  the  traveller  can 
roll  on  the  floor  and  rest  his  limbs  till  called  for  the 
bath.  The  bath  is  heated  daily  and  kept  hot  till  late  at 
night.  The  Japanese  always  wash  with  soap  and  rinse 
off  on  the  outside  of  the  tub,  then  everybody  steps  into 


110  THE  MISSIONARY 

the  same  water  tub  and  comes  out  perspiring,  with  the 
skin  reddened  by  the  congestion  of  blood.  A  Japanese 
always  wets  his  towel  before  wiping.  His  towel  serves 
as  handkerchief  and  washrag.  He  will  tear  it  up  for 
string  or  bandage.  He  may  tie  it  about  his  head  in 
place  of  a  hat,  and  a  farmer  girl  will  tuck  her  towel  about 
her  tresses  as  a  shield  from  the  dust  and  the  sun. 

A  Japanese  hotel  is  always  cleanly,  but  is  noisy  and 
lacks  privacy.  Paper  doors  are  poor  protection  from 
the  wind,  the  rats,  or  a  snoring  neighbour.  You  never 
know  when  your  bedroom  door  will  slide  open  and  be 
entered  by  boy  or  maid.  It  is  all  done  so  politely  and 
innocently  that  it  is  useless  to  make  a  fuss.  I  can  for- 
give everything  of  a  Japanese  hotel  but  the  fleas.  Mos- 
quito nets  bar  the  friendly  mosquitoes,  but  even  flea 
bags  are  stormed  and  entered  by  the  bloodthirsty  knights 
who  tickle,  bite,  and  vanish.  A  missionary  lady  of  well- 
established  honesty  declares  she  murdered  two  hundred 
and  forty  fleas  in  one  night,  and  the  sheet  was  converted 
into  a  battlefield,  strewn  with  the  remains  of  the  gory 
victims  who  stole  her  sleep.  Formerly  no  foreign  food 
was  procurable  in  the  interior,  but  in  the  last  few  years 
milk,  beefsteak,  bread,  jam,  and  crackers  can  be  found 
in  the  markets,  but  a  missionary  usually  prefers  a  Japa- 
nese diet  because  it  is  cheaper  and  less  trouble  to  the 
hotel  keeper.  Lily  bulbs,  chrysanthemum  flowers,  toad- 
stools, and  even  grasshoppers  are  served  to  enliven  the 
digestion.  Counting  grasshoppers,  one  missionary 
claimed  to  have  eaten  ten,  another  twenty,  while  a  third 
ate  all  that  were  given  him,  humorously  remarking  that 
"  he  would  now  be  able  to  preach  the  Gospel  with  as 
much  power  as  John  the  Baptist." 

Sometimes  the  hotel  is  used  as  a  meeting  place.  One 
missionary,  who  had  gone  regularly  to  a  neighbouring 
city,  had  always  been  given  a  room  in  his  hotel  for  the 
preaching  services.  One  day,  however,  the  proprietor 
refused  to  grant  permission  either  for  singing  or  preach- 


TOURING  THROUGH  VILLAGE  111 

ing.  Nothing  daunted,  the  missionary  and  Japanese 
pastor  retired  to  their  room  and  began  to  play  on  a  baby 
organ.  First  one  paper  door  and  then  another  slid  open 
until  there  was  quite  a  volunteer  audience.  Even  the 
proprietor  came  to  listen  to  the  music.  Then  the  mis- 
sionary artfully  asked  the  Japanese  pastor  to  tell  him 
briefly  what  he  thought  of  Jesus  and  the  Christian  reli- 
gion. The  two  therefore  entered  into  an  animated  con- 
versation, and  even  the  proprietor  tarried  and  listened 
attentively. 

A  missionary  will  usually  draw  a  better  crowd  on  a 
tour  than  a  Japanese,  unless  he  be  a  Japanese  of  con- 
siderable note.  The  missionary,  being  foreign,  has  a  per- 
sonality that  excites  curiosity  and  he  is  likewise  blind  to 
opposition  and  hopeful  under  difficulties.  A  missionary 
on  one  of  his  tours  *  was  interrupted  in  his  preaching  by 
a  Buddhist  opponent,  who  said  that  in  Japan  they  had 
thousands  of  gods  and  that  the  assertion  that  God  is 
one  was  unreasonable.  The  missionary  breathed  a  prayer 
for  Divine  guidance,  while  the  controversalist  said  that 
there  must  be  a  god  for  the  ocean,  another  for  the 
wind,  another  for  the  soil,  and  so  forth.  When  it  came 
the  missionary's  turn,  he  asked :  "  Is  there  a  carpenter 
present  ?  "  Yes,  there  was  one.  "  How  many  tools  have 
you  ?  "  asked  the  missionary.  The  carpenter  apologized 
because  he  was  poor  and  very  unskilful,  but  finally  said 
that  he  had  at  least  twenty-five  tools.  The  missionary 
then  asked  if  he  could  use  them  all.  And  the  carpenter 
replied  that  he  could.  The  missionary  then  said :  "  God 
is  the  infinite  one  who  made  all  things.  Even  a  man 
can  handle  twenty-five  tools.  He  knows  them  by  name 
and  there  is  no  confusion  in  their  use.  God  made  the 
sun  as  His  tool  to  give  heat  and  light.  He  made  the 
moon  as  a  similar  tool  for  use  at  night.  The  wind  and 
rain  are  also  his  tools  to  cause  the  rice,  the  grapes,  the 
pine,  and  the  bamboo  to  grow.    A  carpenter  is  not  needed 

*  G.  W.  Van  Horn. 


112  THE  MISSIONARY 

for  every  tool  any  more  than  a  god  is  needed  for  every 
object  or  energy  in  nature."  The  objector  was  thus  si- 
lenced and  the  missionary  proceeded  to  speak  of  the  com- 
passionate One  who  is  not  very  far  away  from  every  one 
of  us.  Sermons  on  these  occasions  need  to  be  of  an  ele- 
mentary kind,  filled  with  the  Christ  story,  set  forth  and 
illustrated  in  the  imagery  and  vocabulary  best  known 
to  the  auditors.  One  missionary  had  a  sermon  on  "  What 
Christianity  has  and  has  not."  On  a  chart  that  every 
one  could  see  he  had  written  two  columns.  In  the  first 
column  appeared  the  words :  "  A  living  God,  a  Saviour, 
a  Bible,  a  Church,  atonement,  forgiveness  of  sins,  a 
future  world,  eternity.  Holy  Spirit,  missionary  work, 
prayer."  In  the  second  column  were  written :  "  Idols, 
sages,  tradition,  shrines,  penances,  cunning  devices,  nir- 
vana, divination,  transmigration  of  souls,  pilgrimages, 
beads." 

A  missionary,*  after  visiting  some  twenty-five  places, 
writes :  "  In  one  city  a  Buddhist  priest  whom  we  visited 
said :  '  There  must  be  some  change  in  Buddhism  if  it  is 
to  meet  the  demands  of  the  age.' "  At  the  next  point 
"  a  Buddhist  priest  was  sending  four  children  to  our 
Sunday  School."  At  the  next  city  the  Christians  had 
secured  a  lot  in  the  centre  of  the  town  for  a  church 
building.  At  another,  three  sisters  received  baptism.  At 
a  seaside  city  he  says,  "  I  met  Brother  Noto,  a  man  of 
beautiful  faith,  who  has  been  a  Christian  twenty  years. 
As  he  goes  about  the  country  selling  cotton  goods,  he 
talks  Christianity  and  sells  Bibles."  At  Tsurugaoka  he 
writes  the  following :  "  A  young  man  of  a  wealthy  family 
came  six  miles  to  be  with  us  and  attend  the  meetings. 
He  told  us  that  having  recently  lost  his  wife  and  only 
child,  he  had  decided  to  end  his  miserable  existence  by 
committing  suicide.  Then  as  never  before  the  thought 
came  to  him,  '  After  death,  what  ? '  Seeking  an  answer 
to  this  question,  he  visited  the  Buddhist  priests,  but  they 

*  R.  A.  McCorkle,  in  Missionary  Intelligencer. 


A  RENTED  PREACHING  PLACE  AT  CHICA 


A  CHURCH   BUILDING  IN  THE  WINTER  TIME 


TOURING  THROUGH  VILLAGE         113 

only  talked  and  talked  until  he  knew  less  than  before. 
*  Now/  he  said,  *  I  have  come  to  you.  Can  you  give  me 
peace  ? '  Long  we  talked  and  prayed  together.  He 
bought  a  Bible  and  hymn  book  and  went  away  that  night, 
saying :  *  I  have  found  the  way  to  peace ! ' " 


VI 

TRIALS  AND   DISCOURAGEMENTS 


To  you  it  hath  been  granted  in  behalf  of  Christ,  not  only  to 
believe  on  Him,  but  also  to  suffer  in  His  behalf. — Philippians, 
i,  29. 

I  wrote  down  my  troubles  every  day 

And  after  a  few  short  years, 
When  I  turned  to  the  heartaches  passed  away 
I  read  them  with  smiles,  not  tears. 

— John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 

But  all  through  life  I  see  a  cross 
Where  sons  of  God  yield  up  their  breath; 

There  is  no  gain  except  by  loss, 
There  is  no  life  except  by  death. 

A  sound  acorn  will  become  a  first-rate  tree  wherever  it  has 
a  chance  to  take  root.  If  there  is  a  rotten  streak  in  you — if 
privation  can  intimidate  you — if  desire  has  gained  mastery  over 
will — if  the  prospect  of  sweating  and  whetting  can  abate  your 
enthusiasm,  opportunity  is  wasted  upon  you.  Quitters  and 
quailers  are  misfits  all  the  way  from  the  stone-heap  to  the 
throne. — Herbert  Kaufman. 

On  the  farm  we  have  an  old  and  young  dog  belonging  to  my 
brother.  The  young  dog  comes  up  to  my  house  twenty  times 
a  day ;  he  is  constantly  looking  for  excitement,  and  follows  us 
wherever  we  go.  He  engages  in  many  unnecessary  fights  and 
carries  many  unnecessary  scars.  He  makes  many  fruitless  dashes 
after  rabbits,  and  digs  for  hours  and  days  to  get  at  foxes  in  their 
dens  in  the  hills,  with  no  success. 

But  the  old  dog,  having  been  a  long  time  out  in  the  world, 
knows  that  little  of  interest  is  going  on,  and  spends  much  of 
his  time  sleeping  in  the  sun.  The  old  dog  has  accepted  a  hint 
from  Nature;  it  is  a  pity  men  are  not  equally  wise. — E.  W. 
Howe,  Independent,  June,  191 1. 


VI 

TRIALS  AND  DISCOURAGEMENTS 

THE  missionary  to  Japan  comes  to  a  well-governed 
country,  where  life  and  property  are  secure, 
where  travel  is  easy,  and  most  of  the  things  ob- 
tainable at  home  can  be  secured.  He  is  not  in  danger 
of  panther,  crocodile,  nor  tsetse  fly.  The  climate  is 
neither  torrid  nor  frigid.  He  will  not  be  kidnapped  for 
a  ransom  nor  need  he  flee  to  the  range  of  a  warship's 
cannon  to  escape  mob  violence. 

Physical  sufferings,  narrow  escapes,  and  the  romantic 
side  of  missionary  life  are  seldom  experienced  in  Japan. 
Yet  missionaries  in  Japan  have  their  discouragements, 
which  belong  almost  entirely  to  the  psychical  realm. 
Discouragement  as  well  as  ill-health  drives  many  a  mis- 
sionary from  the  field.  Worry,  homesickness,  and  the 
blues  bring  on  ill-health,  all  of  which  in  turn  are  aggra- 
vated by  disease.  A  sound  body  and  a  cheery  disposi- 
tion are  valuable  assets  which  can  be  drawn  upon  for 
a  long  life  of  missionary  service. 

A  sage  of  Greece  said,  "  Know  thyself."  Missionaries 
who  come  to  Japan  are  well  known  in  their  own  com- 
munities. They  think  they  know  themselves  and  believe 
that  they  are  known.  They  know  their  own  names  and 
their  own  photographs;  they  know  their  own  purposes, 
their  past  histories,  and  their  future  hopes.  They  know 
how  they  have  glided  along  the  old  tracks,  just  where 
the  curves  were,  and  where  they  used  to  put  on  brakes. 
But  coming  to  a  new  land,  the  missionary's  most  humili- 
ating experience  is  to  discover  that  he  did  not  know  him- 
self and  to  feel  that  his  friends  never  knew  him.  "  The 
crucial  problem  has  been  to  make  yourselves,"  said  Hud- 

117 


118  THE  MISSIONARY 

son  Taylor  to  a  group  of  missionaries.  Self  is  the  great- 
est problem  and  the  most  prolific  source  of  discourage- 
ment on  the  mission  field.  A  newly  arrived  missionary, 
within  a  few  months  has  experiences  of  which  he  never 
dreamed.  If  he  is  over-sensitive,  apprehensive,  loqua- 
cious, so  gullible  that  he  believes  everything,  and  so 
obdurate  as  not  to  accept  advice,  he  will  come  to  think, 
with  the  poet — 

"  Life  is  not  as  idle  ore 
But  iron  dug  from  central  gloom 
And  heated  hot  with  burning  fears 
And  dipped  in  baths  of  hissing  tears 
And  battered  by  the  shocks  of  doom 
To  shape  and  use." 

A  most  discouraging  thing  is  the  seeming  waste  of 
time,  or  rather  the  extravagant  use  of  it,  in  order  to 
accomplish  a  very  little.  A  striking  illustration  is  the 
study  of  the  language.  David  Thompson  said  to  a  young 
missionary,  that  after  twelve  years  of  study  on  the  lan- 
guage it  would  get  easy.  After  twelve  years  had  passed, 
he  laughingly  remarked  to  the  same  missionary,  "  During 
the  next  twelve  years  it  will  become  easier."  Waiting, 
waiting,  waiting !  "  Let  no  one  beat  you  at  waiting," 
is  good  advice  for  every  missionary.  Whatever  it  be — 
a  building,  the  establishment  of  a  new  station,  the  educa- 
tion and  graduation  of  the  young  evangelist — time  and 
prayer  seem  inextricably  and  necessarily  bound  together. 
It  takes  time  for  matters  to  pass  through  a  sub-com- 
mittee of  the  mission;  time  for  the  whole  mission  to 
consider  and  pass  upon  an  important  item;  time  to 
consult  the  mission  society  at  home,  only  to  be 
told,  perchance,  that  more  time  is  necessary  for  the 
churches  are  behind  in  their  gifts ;  or  a  big  and  exhaus- 
tive appropriation  has  just  gone  to  some  other  mission 
field. 


TRIALS  AND  DISCOURAGEMENTS      119 

The  crying  need  in  Japan  to-day  is  a  larger  force  of 
enthusiastic  evangelistic  pastors.  There  is  a  scarcity  of 
concentrated  and  able  young  men  preparing  for  the  min- 
istry. Every  evangelistic  missionary  has  felt  the  dis- 
appointment of  failing  to  see  some  chosen  Timothy  reach 
the  goal.  One  young  man,  vi^ho  entered  a  Bible  school 
full  of  zeal,  had  to  retire  because  of  marrying  into  a 
family  opposed  to  Christianity.  Another  gave  up  and 
went  back  to  his  teaching.  Another  took  up  with  a 
scheme  which  he  was  sure  would  prove  a  great  material 
blessing  to  his  country.  Another  retired  under  an  accusa- 
tion. Others  are  lost,  though  not  always  permanently, 
because  of  study  in  foreign  lands. 

Our  first  convert  we  hoped  would  enter  the  ministry. 
He  did  his  own  choosing  and  has  become  a  merchant 
prince.  One  of  the  last  young  men  I  talked  with  about 
the  ministry  has  just  graduated  from  the  Imperial  Uni- 
versity. I  interceded  that  he  become  a  "  fisher  of  men." 
But  he  said  he  could  not  bring  sorrow  to  the  hearts  of 
his  parents,  as  he  had  been  chosen  to  be  the  head  of 
the  family.  The  thought  of  alienation  and  banishment 
from  home  outweighed  his  consideration  of  what  he  could 
do  for  Christ  and  Japan.  It  is  a  distressing  thing  to 
have  a  fellow-worker  fall  or  go  astray.  This  is  true 
where  the  churches  are  strong  and  the  workers  many, 
as  they  are  in  the  home  land.  It  becomes  a  calamity  on 
the  mission  field  where  the  churches  are  juot  forming 
and  where  the  workers  are  so  few. 

Separation  from  loved  ones  at  home  is  often  a  source 
of  heartache.  A  mission  family  located  in  an  interior 
city,  where  there  are  no  foreigners  or  fellow-mission- 
aries, is  most  apt  to  feel  the  banishment  from  their 
own  kin  and  countrymen.  During  their  first  years  of 
isolation,  and  before  the  growth  of  warm  attachments 
which  spring  up  later  f«r  their  Japanese  friends, 
these  missionaries  are  apt  to  recall  the  words  of  the 
Psalmist : 


120  THE  MISSIONARY 

"  By  the  rivers  of  Babylon, 
There  we  sat  down,  yea,  we  wept, 
When  we  remembered  Zion  .  .  . 
How  shall  we  sing  Jehovah's  song 
In  a  foreign  land  ?  " 

It  is  often  said  to-day  that  space  is  annihilated  and 
that  the  time  is  near  when  there  will  be  no  more  sea. 
Yet  cables  are  costly.  A  picture  cannot  talk.  Thought 
may  bridge  an  ocean  in  an  instant,  but  parents  left  at 
home  are  not  thus  united  to  their  children.  Compli- 
ments to  our  inventive  progress  do  not  fill  vacant  chairs. 
Missionaries  entail  upon  their  parents  no  more  of  a 
burden  than  consuls,  merchants,  or  officers  of  the  Army 
and  Navy  who  have  left  their  firesides.  Yet  neither 
missionaries  nor  foreign  merchants  can  be  with  their 
parents  in  sickness,  nor,  even  were  they  millionaires, 
could  they  reach  their  bedsides  till  death  or  convalescence 
would  have  made  a  journey  at  sea  unnecessary.  One 
lady  missionary  received  a  cable  telling  of  her  mother's 
illness.  Leaving  her  husband,  she  took  her  young  babe 
and  boarded  the  first  steamer  for  home.  At  the  last 
moment  before  the  boat  lifted  anchor  she  changed  her 
mind  and  landed  on  shore  with  her  babe  and  baggage 
just  before  the  ship  sailed.  A  few  days  later  another 
cable  came  saying  her  mother  had  passed  away. 

I  never  shall  forget  a  mother  who  entertained  me 
in  her  home  in  west  South  Carolina.  She  had  several 
children  near  her,  but  the  only  one  she  talked  about 
was  the  one  far  away.  He  was  a  son,  an  officer  in  our 
Navy.  He  had  been  away  for  years,  but  in  the  mean- 
time the  mother-love  had  not  abated.  She  showed  me 
his  picture ;  she  showed  me  his  very  last  letter.  With 
her  face  all  aglow  with  emotion  she  told  me  he  was 
coming  home  soon,  home  to  live  with  her  for  a  few 
months.  Her  mother-love  had  many  plans  to  make  him 
comfortable.    Though  wrinkled  and  grey-headed,  her  face 


TRIALS  AND  DISCOURAGEMENTS      121 

shone  with  a  youthful  lustre,  and  no  maiden  could  have 
spoken  more  rapturously  of  her  lover  than  that  mother 
talked  of  the  son  who  was  far  away  but  coming  home. 

On  all  mission  fields  the  young  and  middle-aged  are 
in  the  majority.  There  are  many  single  women  and  a 
few  unmarried  men.  Hence  the  missionaries  who  have 
children  old  enough  to  send  home  for  high  school  or 
college  education  are  in  minority.  But  such  as  have 
their  children  in  the  home  land,  either  because  of  sickness 
or  education,  must  expect  to  endure  heart  strains  and 
have  their  faith  put  to  the  test.  Sometimes  a  mother 
will  be  with  the  children  in  the  home  land  while  the 
father  for  years  sticks  to  his  post  on  the  field.  Some- 
times one  or  two  of  the  children  will  be  left  at  home 
while  the  mother  remains  with  the  family  at  the  front. 
God  seems  to  show  a  special  favour  for  the  families 
which  are  broken  for  the  Gospel's  sake.  Though  the 
young  life  may  droop  at  times  for  the  maternal  breast, 
it  becomes  stronger  and  more  self-reliant.  There  is  a 
development  of  character  and  a  result  which  is  very 
satisfactory.  Bishop  Thoburn  has  said  that  in  his  experi- 
ence of  forty  years  he  has  never  known  of  a  child  who 
has  not  turned  out  well  who  has  been  separated  from 
his  parents  at  work  on  the  field.  The  Saviour  was  not 
speaking  figuratively  when  he  said,  "  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  There  is  no  man  that  hath  left  house,  or  brethren, 
or  sisters,  or  mother,  or  father,  or  children,  or  lands 
for  my  sake,  and  for  the  gospel's  sake,  but  he  shall 
receive  a  hundredfold  now  in  this  time,  houses,  and 
brethren,  and  sisters,  and  mothers,  and  children,  and 
lands,  with  persecutions;  and  in  the  world  to  come 
eternal  life." 

The  novelty  of  missionary  life  soon  wears  away.  New 
scenes  become  old  and  strange  sights  become  common; 
monotony  unto  weariness  often  fastens  on  one's  soul. 
Memory  may  call  one  back  to  pleasurable  things  in  the 
home  land  which  time  and  distance  have  magnified  into 


122  THE  MISSIONARY 

an  idealism  that  is  often  unreal  and  untrue.  At  these 
times  the  missionary  must  endure  "  as  seeing  Him  who 
is  invisible."  He  must  recall  the  words  of  his  Lord, 
who  said,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive ; " 
"  he  that  reapeth  receiveth  wages  and  gathereth  fruit  unto 
eternal  life ;  that  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reapeth  may- 
rejoice  together." 

Let  every  man  have  his  due.  Let  us  intercede  that 
the  blessings  of  heaven  may  rest  upon  every  effort,  every 
institution,  every  man,  woman,  or  child  who  is  working 
to  make  the  world  better  or  toiling  to  supply  its  needs. 
The  musician,  the  artist,  the  philosopher,  the  scientist, 
the  inventor,  the  manufacturer,  the  farmer,  the  carpenter, 
the  sailor,  the  shoemaker  are  doing  good  and  spending 
useful  lives  which  they  can  well  spend  as  unto  the  Lord. 
But  when  I  look  out  upon  the  world's  misery  and  sin, 
when  I  search  for  the  ripest  field,  for  the  fields  where 
the  reapers  are  fewest,  when  I  look  up  to  the  Christ 
enthroned  and  canvass  my  own  limited  gifts,  given  for 
one  brief  day,  I  say :  "  Let  me,  if  it  pleases  God,  be  a 
foreign  missionary,  or  if  otherwise  by  some  effort,  prayer, 
or  gift  of  mine,  in  my  stead  may  many  more  hasten  to 
strengthen  the  thin,  broken,  and  scattered  battle-line  at 
the  front." 


VII 
FURLOUGHS   AND  JOURNEYS  BY  SEA 


The  theatre  of  commercial  and  political  activity  in  this  cen- 
tury is  the  Pacific  Ocean. — Arthur  H.  Smith. 

In  hitting  blows  hard  enough  to  impress  the  Far  East  or  Mid- 
Africa,  we  must  certainly  develop  greater  energies  with  which 
to  do  the  tasks  at  our  very  doors.  The  history  of  the  church 
teaches  clearly  and  conclusively  that  the  missionary  epochs  have 
been  the  time  when  the  home  church  has  been  most  powerfully 
stimulated. — John  R.  Mott,  "The  Pastor  and  Modern  Mis- 
sions," p.  49. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  all  who  have  paid  any  attention  to  the 
progress  of  the  world  that  the  Pacific  Ocean  will,  at  not  a  very 
distant  date,  become  one  of  the  prmcipal  theatres  of  commercial 
and  political  activity;  in  other  words,  that  events  in  the  Far 
East  will  become  more  and  more  matters  of  world  interest 
as  time  progress. — Count  Hayashi. 

I  would  be  true,  for  there  are  those  who  trust  me; 
I  would  be  pure,  for  there  are  those  who  care ; 
I  would  be  strong,  for  there  is  much  to  suffer; 
I  would  be  brave,  for  there  is  much  to  dare. 

I  would  be  friend  of  all — the  foe — the  friendless; 
I  would  be  giving  and  forget  the  gift; 
I  would  be  humble,  for  I  know  my  weakness; 
I  would  look  up — and  laugh — and  love  and  lift. 

— Howard  Arnold  Walter,  Harper's  Bazar. 

God  hath  so  many  ships  upon  the  sea ! 

His  are  the  merchantmen  that  carry  treasure, 
The  men-of-war,  all  bannered  gallantly. 

The  little  fisher-boats  and  barks  of  pleasure. 

On  all  the  sea  of  time  there  is  not  one. 
That  sailed  without  the  glorious  Name  thereon. 

So  I,  that  sail  in  peril  on  the  sea 

With  my  beloved,  whom  yet  the  waves  may  cover, 
Say,  God  hath  more  than  angel's  care  of  me 

And  larger  share  than  I  in  friend  or  lover. 

Why  weep  ye  so,  ye  watchers  on  the  land? 
The  deep  is  but  the  hollow  of  His  hand. 

— Carl  Spencer. 


VII 

FURLOUGHS  AND  JOURNEYS  BY  SEA 

OUR  Lord  said  that  repentance  and  remission  of 
sins  shall  be  preached  in  His  name  unto  all  na- 
tions beginning  from  Jerusalem.  Few  ships  sail 
from  Vancouver,  San  Francisco,  New  York,  or  South- 
ampton but  among  the  passengers  are  missionaries  going 
out  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.  A  journey  by 
sea  to-day  is  not  the  long  wearisome  experience  of  one 
hundred  or  even  fifty  years  ago.  Double  or  quadruple 
propellers  make  these  modern  monsters  of  the  sea  in- 
dependent of  wind  or  rudder.  The  traffic  of  the  North 
Atlantic  is  but  a  prophecy  of  the  development  that  will 
surely  come  to  the  North  and  Central  Pacific,  when  in 
no  distant  day  busy  shuttles  of  commerce  shall  bind  more 
closely  the  awakening  Orient  to  the  manufacturing  Oc- 
cident. 

Men  make  ships  for  the  Naval  Reserves  or  for  gain. 
God  uses  them  that  great  walls  of  international  barriers 
may  fall,  that  the  printed  page  of  truth  and  His  living 
messengers  may  scatter  the  gospel  leaven  everywhere. 
The  first  journey  of  a  missionary  from  the  home  land 
to  some  distant  field  is  an  experience  never  to  be  for- 
gotten. When  Dr.  Thompson  came  to  Japan  in  1863,  he 
sailed  on  the  "  Belle  of  the  West "  for  Shanghai  via 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The  boat  was  1,200  tons  and  it 
took  149  days  for  the  journey.  In  these  days  twelve  to 
eighteen  days  is  usually  consumed  in  a  passage  from 
the  West  Pacific  coast  to  Yokohama.  The  best  boats 
range  from  ten  to  twenty-seven  thousand  tons.* 

*  A  family  needs  several  months  for  the  preparation  of  baggage 
and  freight;  360  pounds  of  baggage  is  allowed  to  each  adult  on 

135 


126  THE  MISSIONARY 

Our  railway  journey  from  the  Central  States  to  Van- 
couver was  by  far  the  most  tiresome  part  of  the  journey 
to  Japan.  When  we  came  at  last  alongside  the  graceful 
ship  which  was  to  bear  us  across  the  Pacific,  we  thanked 
God  who  had  brought  us  thus  far  on  our  way.  Aboard 
the  "  Empress  of  China "  we  found  awaiting  us  letters 
and  postals  from  relatives  and  acquaintances.  Among 
them  was  a  bunch  of  letters  with  specifications  as  to 
which  letter  should  be  read  for  each  day  of  the  journey. 
At  last  the  gongs  were  sounding.  Friends  and  relatives 
hastily  said  their  last  kind  words.  Ropes  and  cables  are 
cast  off,  the  propellers  whirl,  and  soon  we  are  headed 
out  for  the  open  sea.  The  ship,  its  cargo  and  its  pas- 
sengers, depend  upon  one  man,  the  captain.  The  Steam- 
ship Company  will  not  trust  its  investment  to  chance,  to 
the  caprice  of  wind  and  wave.  Our  globe,  as  it  rushes 
on  through  the  pathless  ether,  is  not  left  to  chance,  to 
the  caprice  of  comet  or  wandering  star.  "  He  knoweth 
our  frame,  He  remembereth  that  we  are  dust."  The 
heavens  are  the  work  of  God's  hands.  Among  the  pas- 
sengers were  Sir  Ernest  Satow,  England's  Minister  to 
China;  Sir  Thomas  Jackson,  the  great  financier,  and 
Prince  Ouchtomsky,  gentlemanly  in  heart,  as  well  as 
princely  born.  He  it  was  who,  some  years  later,  during 
the  war,  was  to  write  in  an  American  journal  how  Russia 
would  crush  Japan. 

Two  weeks  later,  we  dropped  anchor  at  Yokohama 
in  the  rain.  The  warm,  moist  air  of  Japan  was  in  strik- 
ing contrast  to  the  cold  bracing  winds  we  had  met  en 
route  off  the  Behring  Sea.  The  Japanese  coolies,  with 
their  straw  raincoats,  straw  umbrella  hats,  and  bare  legs, 

a  through  ticket,  for  example,  from  Indianapolis  to  Tokyo.  If 
there  are  children,  the  main  difficulty  is  the  question  of  laundry. 
Trunks  are  divided  into  "  wanted,"  which  go  into  the  state- 
room, and  "  not  wanted,"  which  go  into  the  ship's  baggage  room. 
Two  days'  grace  at  the  port  of  sailing  is  a  good  margin  to  allow 
in  a  long  journey  by  rail,  because  of  washouts  or  other  delays. 


FURLOUGHS  AND  JOURNEYS  BY  SEA    127 

their  shouting,  and  their  jabbering,  their  queer  little  boats 
skilfully  guided  by  a  single  rear  oar,  the  green  hills 
in  the  distance,  the  strange  houses,  the  stranger  looking 
jinrikishas  and  the  smiling  and  bowing  little  men  who 
were  to  whirl  us  to  our  station  and  later  on  to  our  home 
in  the  suburbs  of  Tokyo,  these  and  many  other  things  we 
saw  that  first  day,  combined  to  make  us  feel  that  we 
were  indeed  strangers  in  a  strange  land.  A  feeling  of 
helplessness  and  humility  came  over  us.  In  America 
we  had  had  farewell  receptions.  Crowds  had  come  to 
see  us  off.  Our  departure  had  been  noticed  in  the  local 
newspapers.  Hundreds  of  hands  had  clasped  ours  in  a 
fervent  "  Godspeed."  But  when  we  got  to  Yokohama, 
saving  the  two  missionaries  who  met  us  and  welcomed 
us  warmly,  our  coming  seemed  to  have  been  unknown. 
The  dailies  had  no  editorial  comment  on  our  arrival. 
Just  as  a  drop  of  water  is  lost  in  the  ocean,  we  seemed 
to  have  been  swallowed  by  the  thousands  of  strange- 
looking  people  who  thronged  the  busy  and  noisy  streets 
of  Yokohama  and  Tokyo. 

Missionaries  soon  learn  the  names  of  Pacific  steam- 
ships. Their  arrival  and  departure  are  usually  scheduled 
a  year  ahead.  They  bring  the  mails,  they  carry  home  our 
remembrances,  they  bring  our  reinforcements,  they  carry 
back  the  sick  and  those  who  have  earned  a  rest  in  the 
homeland.  The  ships  have  a  history  and  a  record.  Mis- 
sionaries have  their  favourite  ships  just  as  a  racer  has 
his  favourite  steed.  After  a  lapse  ranging  from  five  to 
eight  years,  missionaries  are  given  a  furlough  of  one 
year  in  the  home  land.  This  is  not  true  of  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries, who  go  out  to  the  field  to  live  and  die  without 
ever  seeing  friends  or  home  again.  The  journey  home 
is  expensive.  The  loss  to  the  work  on  the  field  is  con- 
siderable. Nevertheless  experience  has  proven  that  the 
furlough  is  necessary  and  brings  big  compensations. 
First  of  all,  it  gives  the  missionary  a  rest  and  a  chance 
to  recuperate  in  health.     It  would  astonish  the  reader  if 


128  THE  MISSIONARY 

he  could  know  how  many  missionaries  are  retired  before 
their  furlough  time  comes,  because  of  sickness.  The 
missionary  is  continually  constrained  to  overreach  and 
work  beyond  his  strength.  Overworking  and  discour- 
agement rather  than  the  climate  are  prolific  sources  of 
breakdowns. 

Again,  the  missionary  for  years  has  been  giving  and 
scattering  spiritual  food  and  mental  energy.  He  min- 
isters, but  is  not  ministered  unto.  In  the  home  land,  there 
is  a  Christian  atmosphere  rich  in  spiritual  power  and 
laden  in  many  ways,  which  contributes  to  the  spiritual 
upkeep  of  every  Christian.  Heaven  of  course  is  just 
as  near  the  mission  field  as  the  home  land.  But  on  the 
mission  field  the  missionary  stands  alone  in  human  rela- 
tions. There  are  counter  winds  of  custom,  there  is  an 
atmosphere  which  is  idolatrous,  there  is  the  effect  of 
masses  who  go  the  other  way,  who  do  differently  and 
think  differently  than  we  are  taught  to  do  and  think 
in  the  living  oracles.  Ofttimes  the  missionary  goes 
home  so  discouraged  he  half  vows  he  never  will  return. 
Such  missionaries,  as  a  rule,  are  the  most  eager  to  return 
to  Japan,  for  they  find  that  America  is  not  the  paradise 
of  their  periods  of  gloom  and  blues  in  Japan. 

Seldom  is  a  missionary's  furlough  a  period  for  rest. 
In  my  own  case,  I  was  sent  touring  among  the  churches. 
An  almost  daily  diet  at  church  suppers  of  pickles,  cold 
pork,  fried  cakes,  and  cheese  made  me  long  for  some  of 
the  savoury,  smelly  dishes  of  Japan.  In  Chicago,  reckless 
busmen  all  but  killed  me  twice;  at  Hopkinsville,  the 
night-raiders  turned  my  liver  luminous;  in  a  Tennessee 
town,  I  was  nearly  drawn  into  the  vortex  of  a  negro 
knock-down;  in  a  Texas  town  we  had  to  call  on  a 
Methodist  and  Presbyterian  to  pass  the  basket.  Worse 
than  these  experiences  is  the  daily  ordeal  of  talking  with 
host  or  hostess  for  several  hours  after  bedtime.  They 
have  questions  to  ask  of  encyclopaedic  range,  and  a 
curiosity  that  is  impossible  to  satisfy.    A  story  goes  that 


NIJU  BRIDGE,  ENTRANCE  TO  IMPERIAL  PALACE 


DEPARTMENT  OF  JUSTICE,  TOKYO 


FURLOUGHS  AND  JOURNEYS  BY  SEA  129 

when  a  number  of  missionaries  were  being  assigned  for 
entertainment  at  a  convention,  one  lady  said,  "  Of  course, 
I  will  entertain  some  missionaries,  but  I  want  one  who 
has  been  mutilated  by  cannibals  and  almost  eaten."  So 
the  Committee  sent  her  a  Mr.  Gnawedoff  and  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Eaton.  Sometimes  we  are  almost  blistered  by  hand- 
shakes. In  a  California  town,  the  throng  who  shook 
hands  numbered  two — janitor  and  pastor. 

There  is  more  meaning  in  a  handshake  than  in  palmis- 
try and  more  styles  than  bumps  in  phrenology.  There  is 
the  sweaty,  oily  kind,  the  kind  that  won't  let  go ;  the  stiff 
elbow  kind  with  no  elbow  joint-water;  the  one-pinch 
kind  with  arm  poised  high  and  much  akimbo;  the  timid 
kind  with  three  fingers  up  to  the  middle  knuckle ;  the  kind 
with  one  swing  up  and  down  with  a  bang ;  the  wrenching 
kind  like  a  farmer  after  a  nubbin  of  corn;  the  corpse 
kind,  unresponsive,  and  as  interesting  as  shaking  a 
bootjack.  There  was  one  handshake  I  never  can  forget. 
A  dear  old  lady  at  Beatrice,  feeble  with  age,  dropped  a 
quarter  into  my  palm  and  whispered,  "  It  is  all  I  can 
spare,  but  take  and  use  it  for  Japan."  I  took  it  and 
breathed  a  prayer  that  God  might  multiply  it  ten  thousand 
times,  and  He  answered  the  prayer  at  Wichita.  Ah! 
these  handshakes,  let  them  go  on,  every  one  of  them. 
Sweaty  kind,  hang-on  kind,  wrenching  kind!  They  are 
Japan's  most  precious  asset.  They  will  shake  "  The 
East  is  east  and  the  West  is  west "  into  nothingness — for 
they,  the  East  and  West,  are  meeting  in  these  handshakes. 
We  want  more  bows  and  smiles  in  Japan.  We  want 
more  handshakes  and  smiles  in  United  States.  Not  at 
banks,  not  at  docks,  not  at  custom  houses,  but  through 
the  churches  spread  the  message,  "  There  is  one  God 
and  Father  of  all,"  "  All  ye  are  brethren." 

For  nearly  six  months  before  our  return  to  Japan, 
after  our  first  furlough,  our  rooms  had  been  selected  on 
the  steamship  "  Manchuria  "  which  sails  from  San  Fran- 
cisco.   As  is  usual  with  missionaries  sailing  from  this 


130  THE  MISSIONARY 

port,  representatives  of  our  church  were  down  at  the 
wharf  to  wave  us  their  kind  farewells.  At  sunset  the 
second  day  at  sea  we  passed  through  our  armoured 
cruiser  fleet  on  its  way  to  Honolulu  and  Samoa.  There 
were  seven  cruisers.  Each  cruiser  had  a  slate-colored 
torpedo  boat  destroyer  astern,  towed  by  a  ten-inch  cable. 
The  "Manchuria"  passed  within  a  few  hundred  feet  of 
the  flagship  "  West  Virginia."  Both  decks  were  swarm- 
ing with  real  Americans.  The  marine  band  played  glee- 
fully, while  we  all  shouted,  and  waved  our  hats,  and 
handkerchiefs.  That  evening,  as  we  left  our  squadron 
far  behind  in  the  gathering  twilight,  and  one  by  one  the 
stars  came  out,  it  seemed  as  if  our  whole  earth  were  a 
tiny  toy  floating  in  God's  unfathomed  ocean  of  creation. 
How  transient  things  of  time  became !  A  peace  and  joy 
inexpressible  came  over  my  soul!  By  God's  grace  in 
a  new  and  more  precious  creation  of  eternal  and  God- 
like spirits,  I  had  been  sent  upon  a  mission,  the  im- 
portance of  which  surpassed  the  sweep  of  every  distant 
sun.  And  thus  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep  in  my  berth, 
grateful  and  content,  thinking  of  loved  ones  hidden 
below  the  eastern  horizon. 

The  cold,  stiff  wind  we  faced  in  leaving  the  Golden 
Gate  was  forgotten  at  Honolulu.  Here  the  air  was  balmy, 
and  soft  zephyrs  which  had  kissed  many  a  palm  and 
scent-burdened  bloom  passed  on  to  sport  with  the  breakers 
whose  dazzling  whiteness  marked  the  parting  line  be- 
tween the  deep  blue  of  the  ocean  and  the  restful  green 
of  Oahu's  tropical  profusion.  That  same  evening,  as 
we  lifted  anchor,  to  the  west  was  the  sinking  sun,  just 
touching  the  briny  blue,  and  golden  glory  was  splashed 
all  over  the  western  sky.  To  the  east,  resting  upon  the 
mountains,  were  dark  storm  clouds,  in  front  of  which 
a  rainbow  stood  out  bold  and  high,  circling  from  Punch 
Bowl  to  Diamond  Head.  Nestled  within  these  contrasts 
of  colour,  lay  the  ship  and  its  wharf. 

The  boat's   decks,   the  gangway   and  landings   were 


FURLOUGHS  AND  JOURNEYS  BY  SEA  131 

swarming  with  living  souls  from  many  lands.  Standing 
space  on  deck  was  littered  with  the  petals  of  bouquets 
and  wreaths,  which,  with  a  kiss  or  a  smile,  friends  had 
thrown  to  one  another.  And  all  the  while  Honolulu's 
band  was  playing  some  favourite  air.  There  seemed  to  be 
no  colour-line,  no  race-line.  The  occasion  really  seemed 
typical  of  heaven — for  here  were  beauty  of  landscape, 
safety  of  harbour,  common  interest,  love,  and  good-will. 
Would  that  each  one  there  that  day  could  have  passed 
on  to  his  own  countryman  the  same  spirit  and  the  good 
cheer  of  the  hour.  But  our  ship  is  in  motion.  We  circle 
around  to  the  westward  and  swing  out  farther  and 
farther  from  the  gem  of  the  Pacific,  which  soon  disap- 
peared in  the  gathering  dusk.  Under  the  inspiration  of 
what  we  saw,  heard,  and  felt  that  night  our  prayer  as- 
cended that  race  prejudice  might  be  obliterated,  that  wars 
and  preparations  for  them  might  cease,  and  that  every 
man  the  world  over  might  call  every  other,  neighbour  and 
friend. 


VIII 
THE  KIND  OF  MISSIONARIES  NEEDED 


Send  me  anywhere,  provided  it  be  forward. 

Perpetual  devotion  to  what  a  man  calls  his  business  is  only  to 
be  sustained  by  perpetual  neglect  of  many  other  things. — R.  L. 
Stevenson. 

Many  a  missionary  is  at  his  best  in  leading  and  at  his  worst 
in  following.  He  is  apt  to  be  impatient  of  restraint,  good  in 
initiative,  but  poor  in  team  work.  And  yet  team  work  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  highest  success. — Arthur  J.  Brown. 

Dare  to  look  up  to  God  and  say:  Deal  with  me  in  the  future 
as  Thou  wilt;  I  am  of  the  same  mind  as  Thou  art;  I  am  Thine; 
I  refuse  nothing  that  pleases  Thee ;  lead  me  where  Thou  wilt ; 
clothe  me  in  any  dress  Thou  choosest. — Epictetus. 

Could  I  live  my  fifty  years  over  again,  I  should  wish  to 
change  much  early  and  late  and  in  the  middle  distance,  as  to 
personal  action  and  zeal ;  but  I  would  not  change  my  occupation 
or   desire   anything   happier   or   nobler   in    ideal. — Archdeacon 

MOULE. 

If  you  strike  a  thorn  on  a  rose, 

Keep  a-goin' ; 
If  it  hails  or  if  it  snows, 

Keep  a-goin'. 
'Taint  no  use  to  sit  and  whine 
When  the  fish  ain't  on  the  line 

Bait  your  hook  and  keep  on  tryin', 

Keep  a-goin'. 

When  the  weather  kills  your  crop, 

Keep  a-goin'. 
When  you  tumble  from  the  top, 

Keep  a-goin'. 

S'pose  you're  out  every  dime; 
Gettin'  broke  ain't  any  crime; 
Tell  the  world  you're  puUin'  fine. 
Keep  a-goin'. 


VIII 

THE  KIND  OF  MISSIONARIES  NEEDED 

THE  missionary  comes  uninvited  to  Japan.  If  he 
begins  as  an  iconoclast  or  shrinks  into  his  shell 
with  a  "  holier  than  thou  "  attitude,  he  may  not 
expect  inquirers  or  converts.  The  fact  that  he  is  an 
American,  a  Christian,  or  that  he  has  for  years  prepared 
especially  to  spend  and  be  spent  in  foreign  service,  counts 
but  little  in  the  minds  of  those  to  whom  he  is  sent.  I 
was  giving  out  tracts  in  a  park  one  day  to  a  Japanese  who 
asked  me  my  line  of  merchandise.  It  was  hard  to  con- 
vince him  that  I  had  taken  so  long  a  journey  from  my 
own  land  unless  for  gain  or  profit.  The  missionary's 
real  mission  has  nothing  similar  with  which  it  can  be 
compared  in  the  ordinary  life  of  the  people.  Christianity 
may  be  all  right  for  the  foreigner,  but  why  he  wants  to 
spread  it  in  Japan  remains  an  unanswerable  question 
with  many  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  power  of  the 
Gospel. 

The  missionary  who  comes  to  Japan  must  earn  his 
spurs.  He  must  begin  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder  to 
climb.  Introductions  are  unasked  by  the  people  and  un- 
necessary. He  will  be  found  out  and  rated  pretty  well 
at  market  value.  His  work  and  the  impression  he  makes 
will  be  in  the  measure  of  his  toil,  his  character,  his 
patience.  Past  successes  and  honours  attained  at  home 
seem  to  be  mercilessly  cut  away.  He  begins  a  freshman 
again  in  a  new  university  of  experience.  It  is  all-impor- 
tant, therefore,  that  the  missionary  body  be  a  picked 
body.  Mission  boards  who  select  the  candidates  should 
have  in  mind  the  characteristics  of  the  Japanese  as  well 
as  Japan's  prominence  and  influence  throughout  the 
whole  Eastern  World. 

135 


136  THE  MISSIONARY 

"  A  better  selection  of  missionaries  is  needed,  and  they 
need  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  language,  litera- 
ture, religions,  and  history  of  the  country  than  is  usually 
the  case  now;  also,  thorough  self-identification  with  the 
people,  devotion  to  them,  and  intenser  evangelistic  zeal 
are  demanded  by  the  situation  in  Japan."  * 

Besides  good  health,  a  liberal  education,  and  faith  in 
God  and  His  word,  the  missionary  should  bring  along 
in  his  own  personality  a  special  influence  or  in  his  attain- 
ments a  specialty  that  would  give  him  a  place  of  com- 
mand in  any  community  in  the  home  land.  The  Japanese 
are  quick  to  detect  merit  and  worth  in  any  line.  They 
are  drawn  instinctively  to  men  and  women  who  are 
richly  endowed  with  personal  force  and  exert  it  quietly, 
kindly,  and  irresistibly.  A  personality  that  will  draw, 
not  repel,  that  will  attract,  not  displease,  is  one  of  the 
best  gifts  for  a  missionary  in  Japan.  Some  specialty, 
be  it  in  music,  letters,  linguistic  ability,  gymnastics, 
mechanical  or  scentific  attainment  will  give  the  mission- 
ary a  leverage  of  power  that  will  be  useful  all  through 
life. 

The  missionary  who  does  not  love  the  Japanese  is 
doomed  to  failure.  Though  he  speaks  like  a  Japanese, 
"  but  have  not  love,  .  .  .  sounding  brass  or  a  clanging 
cymbal "  would  accomplish  as  much  and  be  less  ex- 
pensive. Evil  he  will  see  around  him  and  provoking 
things  he  will  experience,  but  "  love  never  faileth  "  be- 
cause it  is  "  not  provoked,  taketh  not  account  of  evil," 
believeth  and  "  hopeth  all  things."  The  missionary  comes 
to  introduce  the  reign  of  love.  He  comes  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  most  loving  and  lovable  of  the  race.  If 
he  fails  in  love,  he  has  failed  miserably  and  finally. 

For  three  hundred  years  the  Japanese  have  had  the 
custom  of  tea-drinking.  Dating  farther  back  are  cere- 
monies which  sprang  up  in  the  misty  past.  Much  of 
their  life  is  determined  by  set  formality.     Their  daily 

*  David  B.  Schneder. 


THE  KIND  OF  MISSIONARIES  NEEDED  137 

courtesies  are  as  natural  and  as  necessary  as  their  eating 
and  drinking.  The  missionary  need  not  be  a  slave  to 
all  their  habits,  but  to  a  certain  extent  a  natural  courtesy 
and  easy  conformity  to  the  more  ordinary  customs  will 
do  much  to  win  favourable  attention  and  open  the  heart's 
door  for  the  coming  of  the  invisible  Guest.  What  may 
seem  to  the  foreigner  a  burdensome  formality,  may  be 
to  a  Japanese  an  essential  duty  or  act  of  propriety.  For- 
tunate is  the  missionary  if  among  Jews  he  can  "  become 
as  a  Jew  "  that  he  "  might  gain  the  more." 

"  Be  ye  wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves," 
though  centuries  old,  has  lost  none  of  its  importance. 
The  missionary  in  Japan  builds  not  only  for  to-day  but 
for  the  centuries.  Will  his  work  stand  as  the  pyramids  ? 
Or  as  a  palace  of  ice,  beautiful  in  winter,  will  it  melt 
with  the  first  flush  of  spring?  Christianity  in  Japan  is 
yet  in  its  icipiency.  Wise  master-builders  are  needed  in 
laying  the  foundations  broad,  deep,  and  strong.  "  Work- 
ers who  can  adapt  themselves  to  a  highly  sensitive, 
intensely  patriotic,  and  distinctively  self-sufficient  peo- 
ple "  *  are  especially  needed.  It  is  lamentable,  yet  it  is 
true,  that  an  unwise  act  or  an  indiscreet  remark  of  a 
missionary  may  bring  on  a  world  of  trouble  and  undo 
the  work  of  years.  The  idea  that  missionaries  are  an- 
gelic in  spirit  and  infallible  in  their  methods  is  a  mistake. 
Our  wings  have  not  sprouted,  and  "  we  err  in  human 
blindness  "  though  '"'  we  struggle  to  be  just." 

"  It  is  of  primary  importance  that  the  missionary  have 
a  large  endowment  of  common  sense.  Nothing  else  will 
make  up  for  inefficiency  in  this.  It  alone  gives  power 
to  adapt  oneself  to  the  new  environments  and  to  live 
under  changed  conditions.  .  .  .  The  missionary  also 
needs  to  a  great  degree  the  power  of  self-control.  He 
should  be  a  cool,  conservative  man,  able  to  govern  him- 
self under  all  circumstances.  He  must  not  be  moved 
to  excessive  labour  by  the  present  needs  of  the  work, 

*  C.  A.  Clark,  "An  Appeal  from  Japan." 


138  THE  MISSIONARY 

but  must  exercise  self-restraint,  husbanding  his  strength 
for  future  tasks."  * 

It  will  be  fortunate  if  the  missionary  has  a  vein  of 
levity  and  can  fall  back  upon  a  cheerful  and  sunny  dis- 
position. Serious  and  sincere  he  should  be,  but  a  serious- 
ness whose  tension  can  never  be  broken  by  a  laugh  is 
apt  to  wander  into  gloom  and  discouragement.  Con- 
scientious he  should  be,  but  he  must  make  due  allow- 
ances for  the  consciences  of  others,  concede  that  they 
may  be  as  conscientious  as  he,  and  grant  them  due  and 
impartial  treatment,  and  sometimes  defer  to  the  con- 
sciences of  another. 

The  missionary  in  Japan  should  be  well  read  in  world- 
wide missions  before  he  comes  to  the  field.  He  should 
be  familiar  with  the  difficulties,  the  opposition,  and 
persecutions  that  met  the  early  church  before  it  tri- 
umphed in  the  Roman  Empire.  If  he  have  in  mind  that 
the  onward  sweep  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  by  genera- 
tions and  centuries  rather  than  by  months  and  years, 
no  negative  experience  can  dampen  his  optimism  or 
introduce  doubts  of  ultimate  triumph.  During  the  intro- 
ductory period  of  language  study,  there  is  no  time  for 
reading,  but  there  will  come  a  time  when  the  missionary 
must  read  or  wither  intellectually  and  spiritually.  He 
cannot  hear  the  lectures  or  sermons  of  the  world's  great 
specialists.  He  cannot  attend  Chautauquas  or  summer 
courses  at  universities.  The  only  way  he  can  satisfy  his 
hunger,  to  get  filled  up  with  what  the  throbbing  and 
advancing  Occident  is  thinking  and  doing,  is  through 
his  periodicals  and  books,  which  are  all  too  few- 
Thousands  of  letters  go  home  from  the  missionaries 
to  entertain,  enlighten,  and  inspire  individuals  and  so- 
cieties in  the  churches.  But  seldom,  very  seldom,  does 
a  book,  a  periodical,  or  letter  come  to  balance  the  ac- 
count. One  missionai*y  mother  who  was  recently  in  our 
home  had  a  little  bundle  of  sixty  unanswered  letters 
*  R.  B.  Peery,  "  Gist  of  Japan,"  pp.  204-205. 


THE  KIND  OF  MISSIONARIES  NEEDED    139 

from  different  parts  of  the  United  States.  The  mission- 
aries feel  that  they  have  some  debtors  in  America,  after 
paying  the  deficient  postage  of  their  correspondents  and 
mailing  them  letters  and  documents  per  request,  as  long 
as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

I  was  told  by  a  Japanese  friend,  a  bosom  friend,  with 
whom  I  had  exchanged  confidences,  that  I  ought  to  study 
the  Japanese  heart.  He  complimented  me  about  this 
and  that,  but  said  that  I  must  know  more  of  the  inner 
life  of  the  Japanese.  I  thanked  him  and  agreed  with 
him.  The  conversation  took  place  about  seven  years 
ago  and,  I  am  still  studying  the  Japanese  heart.  Every 
missionary  must  make  the  national  life,  the  daily  life,  the 
heart  life  of  the  people  his  study.  It  is  not  an  easy  task. 
Much  is  learned  by  personal  contact.  Much  may  be 
gathered  from  their  history,  much  from  their  periodicals. 
In  conversation  with  a  Japanese,  I  have  never  recited  a 
Japanese  poem,  mentioned  the  name  of  Hideyoshi,  re- 
peated the  chant  of  the  Nichiren  sect,  or  alluded  to  some 
current  incident,  but  that  a  new  point  of  contact,  a  new 
interest,  a  new  warmth  was  immediately  noticeable. 

Without  intense  labour  and  long  concentration,  nothing 
worthy  can  be  accomplished  on  the  mission  field.  Wil- 
liam Seward  Burroughs  worked  for  twelve  years  on  his 
adding  and  listing  machine.  Time  and  again  he  de- 
molished his  model  and  began  anew.  The  more  intricate 
parts  of  his  all  but  human  machine  he  cut  with  tools 
handled  under  a  microscope.  The  missionary  likewise 
may  expect  many  failures,  but  should  persist.  His  spirit- 
ual tools  will  not  work  in  a  haphazard  way.  He  will 
not  bungle  into  success.  He  must  endure.  He  must 
run  for  a  long  time  and  not  be  weary.  He  must  hang 
on  and  go  on  no  matter  how  long  and  steep  seems  the 
way.  If  his  road  takes  him  to  an  impassable  ravine,  he 
must  loop  around  it,  and  though  he  seems  to  be  going 
backwards,  he  must  not  halt.  Such  a  missionary,  who 
enters  for  a  long,  steady  pull,  who  waits  a  little  for  his 


140  THE  MISSIONARY 

second  wind  and  reserves  some  energy  for  the  last  spurt, 
will  finish  his  race  at  the  end  of  the  years,  a  happy  and 
easy  victor. 

The  missionary  must  be  a  man  of  God.  His  suf- 
ficiency must  be  in  Christ,  and  his  reward  must  be  His 
"  well  done."  His  faith  must  be  able  to  leap  over  the 
obstructions  of  sense  and  sight,  and  carry  him  frequently 
to  the  feet  of  Him  who  rules  with  all  authority  and  at 
whose  command  are  the  infinite  resources  of  power. 
He  is  to  live  Christ  as  well  as  teach  Him.  Perfection 
in  the  language,  so  necessary  and  desirable,  a  faultless 
rhetoric,  and  a  pleasing  address,  will  be  as  non-effective 
in  moving  souls  as  stones  shovelled  into  a  stove  for  pro- 
ducing heat,  unless  the  fruits  of  the  spirit  ripen  and  fall 
abundantly  and  in  unending  measure. 

The  missionary  comes  from  a  land  where  things  are 
done  in  haste,  where  telegrams  announce  great  in- 
gatherings, where  every  day  in  the  year  magnificent 
church  buildings  of  brick  and  stone  are  erected.  No 
wonder  if  he  catches  the  spirit  of  the  times  and  measures 
success  by  numbers  and  cubic  yards  of  masonry.  Sup- 
porters of  missions  and  mission  boards  are  eager  for 
results,  and  there  may  be  impatience  and  criticisms  if 
the  missionary's  reports  do  not  reach  up  to  the  popular 
expectation.  Missionaries  are  needed  who  have  faith  in 
the  power  of  the  leaven,  who  know  the  divine  law  of 
progress,  "  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear."  Jesus  said :  "  The  kingdom  of  God 
Cometh  not  with  observation,  neither  shall  they  say  lo, 
here !  or  lo,  there !  "  The  missionary  must  take  his 
stand  on  the  invisible,  irresistible  reach  and  power  of 
Christ's  personality  and  truth,  and,  unmoved  by  the  craze 
for  arithmetical  display,  must  be  confident  that  the  spir- 
itual harvest  will  follow  the  sowing  of  the  good  seed,  as 
certainly  as  the  Empire  of  night  vanishes  with  the  songs 
of  the  morning. 


IX 
SOME   WAYS   OF   SERVICE 


Happiness  is  a  great  love  and  much  serving. 

— Olive  Schreiner. 

Who  does  the  best  his  circumstances  allow. 
Does  well,  acts  nobly;  angels  could  do  no  more. 

— Young. 

Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life,  and  smote  on  all  the  chords  with 

might ; 
Smote  the  chord  of  self,  that,  trembling,  passed  in  music  out  of 

sight. 

— Tennyson. 

Love  seeketh  not  itself  to  please. 

Nor  for  itself  hath  any  care, 
But  for  another  gives  its  ease, 

And  builds  a  Heaven  in  hell's  despair. 
We  must  remember  that  it  was  not  by  interceding  for  the 
world  in  glory  that  Jesus  saved  it.  He  gave  Himself.  Our 
prayers  for  the  evangelization  of  the  world  are  but  bitter  irony 
so  long  as  we  only  give  our  superfluity  and  draw  back  before 
the  sacrifice  of  ourself. — M.  Francois  Coillard, 

Love  puts  not  off  the  pursuit  of  duty  till  it  attain  the  pos- 
session of  glory.  There  is  no  rocking  this  babe  to  sleep,  but 
in  the  cradle  of  the  grave.  A  soul  that  loves  much  will  work 
much.  The  injunctions  of  love  are  not  grievous,  but  precious. — 
William  Secker,  "  The  Nonesuch  Professor,"  p.  359. 

Tact  is  the  life  of  the  five  senses.  It  is  the  open  eye,  thq 
quick  ear,  the  judging  taste,  the  keen  smell,  and  the  lusty  touch. 
Talent  is  power,  tact  is  skill ;  talent  is  weight,  tact  is  momentum  ; 
talent  knows  what  to  do,  tact  knows  how  to  do  it;  talent  is 
wealth,  tact  is  ready  money. 

Take  the  greatest  optimists — bald  people !  First  and  last  they 
have  spent  more  money  on  hair  restorers  than  Mr.  Morgan  or 
Mr.  Rockefeller  owns,  and  never  has  a  lost  hair  been  restored. 
It  may  be  an  humble  comparison,  but  lost  years,  energies,  ambi- 
tions, and  such  are  as  unrecoverable  as  lost  hairs — neither  effort, 
nor  quackery,  nor  sighing  can  bring  them  back. — Saturday  Even- 
ing Post. 


IX 

SOME  WAYS  OF  SERVICE 

WHEN  a  missionary  reaches  the  field,  his  ges- 
tures and  his  words  are  ridiculous  to  all  save 
a  few  friends.  He  must  begin  as  a  baby  be- 
gins, both  on  the  language  study  and  mission  decorum. 
The  first  way  to  be  of  service  is  for  the  missionary  to 
be  patient  during  the  process  of  readjustment.  Possibly 
the  church  he  left  in  America  looked  upon  him  as  a 
leader.  He  may  have  been  petted  and  honoured.  But 
on  the  field,  he  finds  that  matters  of  importance  are  set- 
tled by  the  council  and  vote  of  his  fellows,  and  that  he 
can  move  no  faster  than  the  mission  body  thinks  best 
for  him  and  the  whole  work.  Then,  too,  there  is  a 
Japanese  community  whose  capacity,  indirectness,  and 
supersensitiveness  he  must  consider.  The  new  mission- 
ary is  more  often  a  follower  than  a  leader ;  he  must  give 
up  much  and  learn  the  virtue  of  waiting. 

On  any  field  the  missionary  meets  with  many  dis- 
tractions. He  must  be  careful  of  his  time  and  firm  in 
the  execution  of  more  important  things.  Just  how  to 
strike  a  balance,  just  how  to  render  a  due  proportion 
of  time  and  attention  to  his  work,  to  his  recreation,  to 
his  family  and  friends,  to  his  study,  to  his  correspond- 
ence, to  his  general  reading,  to  his  callers,  to  his  classes, 
to  his  travel,  to  his  sermons,  to  his  private  inquirers,  or 
a  score  of  other  things,  is  a  difficult  task. 

Touring  is  a  hard  but  blessed  work,  for  it  brings 
glad  tidings  into  new  towns  and  villages  and  comforts 
scattered  bands  of  Christians  surrounded  by  an  idolatrous 
community.  A  missionary  just  back  from  a  short  jour- 
ney reported :  "  Six  sermons  preached,  eighteen  hours 

143 


144.  THE  MISSIONARY 

of  English  work,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  travel 
on  the  bicycle,  one  hundred  on  the  train,  six  points  have 
been  visited,  and  at  least  six  hundred  have  heard  the 
word."  *  When  I.  H.  Correll  did  the  first  preaching  in 
the  city  of  Matsumoto  in  1878,  it  took  him  seven  days 
to  reach  the  city.  He  was  called  thither  by  a  friend 
whom  he  had  taught  secretly  at  Yokohama.  This  friend 
had  asked  permission  for  Christian  services,  and  the  city 
officials  wrote  in  big  letters  with  red  ink  across  his 
application,  "  We  have  no  authority  to  grant  the  per- 
mission for  the  preaching  of  Christianity."  But  they 
held  their  peace  as  the  church  there  to-day  is  witness. 

Since  1899,  Japan  has  had  a  Gospel  Ship  with  an 
experienced  sea  captain  and  missionary  in  charge,  Capt. 
Luke  W.  Bickel.  The  islanders  he  visits  call  his  two- 
masted  schooner  "  The  Jesus  Ship."  A  railway  official 
said,  "  Yes,  I  have  read  in  the  daily  papers  of  her  work 
for  the  island  people  of  our  country.  A  strangely  per- 
sistent, energetic  religion  is  that  of  yours."  The  first 
boat  and  its  twenty-five-foot  motor  launch  was  the  dona- 
tion of  R.  S.  Allan,  of  the  Allan  Line  of  steamships, 
as  a  memorial  of  his  mother,  f  Captain  Bickel  and  his 
workers  labour  in  420  towns  and  villages,  62  rented 
preaching  places,  and  52  Sunday  Schools,  with  an  enrol- 
ment of  3,500  pupils.  Sometimes  services  are  held 
aboard  ship.  A  ship's  newspaper  is  regularly  mailed  to 
hundreds  of  homes. 

A  great  opportunity  is  afforded  in  Japan  for  tract 
distribution  because  of  the  general  intelligence.  The 
average  home  is  but  scantily  supplied  with  reading  ma- 
terial. One  missionary  gets  as  many  as  a  thousand  let- 
ters and  cards  yearly,  inquiring  about  Christianity,  be- 

*  H.  H.  Erskine,  Missionary  Intelligencer,  September,  1912. 

t  Captain  Bickel  has  just  built  a  new  boat  which  has  auxiliary 
engines  of  120  H.  P.  The  length  is  120  feet  and  beam  24 
feet.  The  boat,  which  is  a  brigantine  rig,  serves  as  a  training 
ship  for  such  marine  students  as  can  be  accommodated  aboard. 


^^^^^^^^ 

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±  '  " 

1 

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■jifillf 

gJBJIpi 

■ 

■■■■ 

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Sr.    I.l'KlCS    IlOSl'lTAI.,    '|■()K^•() 


CHAPEL  AT   ST.    LUKE  S 


ONE   VV   THE   (li'ERATl.W;    ROOMS 


SOME  WAYS  OF  SERVICE  145 

cause  of  the  tracts  he  has  distributed.  Miss  Eliza  G. 
Tweedie  and  Miss  Ada  B.  Killam  have  distributed  tracts 
by  the  hundredweight.  They  have  been  welcomed  espe- 
cially for  talks  on  temperance  at  elementary  schools,  and 
in  no  case  has  the  principal  ever  refused  them  permis- 
sion. As  an  illustration  of  the  power  of  Christian  lit- 
erature, Professor  Yano,  of  Sendai,  asked  Galen  M. 
Fisher  to  recommend  a  text-book  on  John,  The  pro- 
fessor organized  a  class  for  the  special  study  of  John 
with  the  help  of  the  book  recommended,  and  seventeen 
out  of  the  class  were  baptized  during  the  year.  The 
growth  of  socialism  in  Germany  is  augmented  by  social- 
istic literature.  "  During  the  year  the  socialists  held 
30,000  meetings  and  distributed  23,000,000  leaflets  and 
2,500,000  pamphlets."  *  It  is  a  pity  for  any  missionary 
to  be  outdone  by  a  socialist  because  of  lack  of  funds. 

The  Sunday  School  is  a  tremendous  power  for  driving 
the  wedge  of  truth  into  the  lubberly  log  of  unbelief. 
Sunday  Schools  can  be  opened  most  anywhere  in  Japan 
and  the  rooms  filled  with  little  children.  The  Japanese 
are  indulgent  to  their  children,  and  by  way  of  a  child, 
entrance  can  be  had  into  the  homes  and  hearts  of  a:ny 
community,  however  anti-Christian.  Some  years  ago 
Christian  workers  entered  the  slum  district  of  Osaka 
and  tried  in  vain  to  rent  a  room  for  a  Sunday  School. 
The  prejudice  was  so  great  that  they  could  not  find  a 
roof  to  shelter  them,  so  for  four  weeks  they  held  a 
Sunday  School  in  the  street.  In  a  month's  time  the 
change  in  the  children  was  so  marked  that  many  homes 
were  offered  for  Sunday  School  meetings,  rent  free.  A 
church  stands  in  the  community  to-day  as  the  result. 

When  Jesus  was  on  earth.  He  healed  many  sick,  deaf, 
and  blind.  This  was  what  they  wanted  and  He  gra- 
ciously responded  to  their  requests.  The  missionary  in 
Japan  is  constantly  urged  to  teach  English,  and  many 
missionaries  have  used  to  great  advantage  this  universal 

*  American  Review  of  Reviews,  July,  191 1, 


146  THE  MISSIONARY 

desire  for  English  language  study,  and  by  means  of  the 
friendships  so  formed  have  won  many  souls.  H.  E. 
Coleman  has  eight  classes  in  English  Bible  study.  As 
he  teaches  in  the  private  university  founded  by  the  noted 
Fukuzawa,  he  has  a  splendid  chance  to  draw  about  him 
a  superior  lot  of  young  men.  Among  his  boys  he  has 
organized  a  brotherhood  band  upon  Bible  study,  friend- 
ship, and  Christian  character.  Another  missionary 
draws  thirty  teachers  from  the  city  schools  to  his  home 
weekly,  the  attraction  being  his  English  library. 

Perhaps  the  most  noted  Christian  effort  in  Japan,  based 
upon  the  teaching  of  English,  is  the  Palmore  Institute, 
situated  in  the  heart  of  Kobe.  It  was  founded  in  1886, 
in  Kobe,  by  Dr.  W.  B.  Palmore,  editor  of  the  St.  Louis 
Christian  Advocate.  In  the  midst  of  the  classes  held 
from  seven  to  nine  p.m.,  one-half  hour  is  given  to  Bible 
instruction  or  Christian  lectures.  The  yearly  enroll- 
ment is  between  six  and  seven  hundred. 

In  a  few  cases  missionaries  have  paid  for  space  in 
daily  newspapers  and  advertised  the  claims  and  promises 
of  Christianity.  Albertus  Pieters,  of  Oita  province,  had 
438  applications  for  free  literature  within  three  months. 
"  One  man  wrote  in  distress  of  mind  on  account  of  the 
loss  of  his  wife;  still  another  because  his  lusts  were  too 
strong  for  him."  One  young  woman  "  had  been  so 
impressed  by  what  she  had  read  that  she  could  not  wait 
another  day  but  came  right  over  to  get  further  instruc- 
tion." *  Recently  a  deputation  of  ten,  headed  by  the 
village  school  teacher,  came  from  a  region  thirty-five 
miles  away  to  inquire  about  Christianity.  They  had 
read  Mr.  Pieters's  study  of  the  life  of  Christ,  which  ap- 
pears every  other  day  in  the  newspaper. 

A  great  and  pressing  opportunity  is  afforded  to  men, 

and  especially  to  women,  in  the  thousands  of  labourers 

who  are  flocking  from  the  country  to  the  cities  to  engage 

in  factory  work.    Japan  has  about  a  million  factory  em- 

*  The  Japan  Evangelist,  August,  1912. 


SOME  WAYS  OF  SERVICE  147 

ployees,  and  the  number  increases  every  year.  For  some 
years,  Miss  Susan  Bauernfeind  has  befriended  the  work- 
ers at  a  cotton-thread  spinning  mill  in  Tokyo.  There 
are  6,000  employees,  one-half  of  whom  are  girls;  2,000 
of  the  girls  reside  in  the  factory  dormitory,  twenty  girls 
to  a  room.  The  factory  in  question  is  well  managed,  but 
ofttimes  the  treatment  of  the  girls  in  the  factories  is 
distressing.* 

Japanese  policemen  are  under  the  small  wage  of  eight 
dollars  a  month,  during  the  first  ten  years  of  service. 
They  are  given  a  two  months'  training  previous  to  their 
appointment  as  police.  It  is  in  these  training  schools  that 
James  Cuthbertson  and  wife  have  found  special  oppor- 
tunities to  sow  the  gospel  seed  among  the  policemen  of 
Tokyo  and  four  other  cities.  They  were  loaned  for  the 
work  by  the  Evangelistic  Band. 

Miss  E.  R.  Gillett,  associated  with  two  Japanese  evan- 
gelists, has  developed  a  successful  railway  mission  to 
the  thousands  of  men  in  the  shops  and  larger  railway 
stations.  She  and  her  assistants  have  been  given  passes, 
and  meetings  are  held  all  over  the  Empire.  At  some 
two  hundred  stations,  regular  meetings  are  held  in  the 
club  rooms,  where  the  officials  welcome  gospel  addresses. 

The  missionary  meets  a  great  many  young  people  who 
never  forget  him,  perhaps  because  he  is  the  only  for- 
eigner they  ever  addressed.  If  such  names  and  resi- 
dences are  preserved,  a  great  opportunity  is  given  for  the 
cultivation  of  faith  by  correspondence  and  tract  distri- 
bution. R.  P.  Gorbold's  work  in  this  line  has  so  de- 
veloped that  he  has  secured  the  services  of  a  stenog- 
rapher.   Copies  of  his  own  letters,  as  well  as  the  messages 

*  This  example  of  what  a  woman  can  do  originated  by  one  of 
the  officials  asking  for  a  Sunday  School.  For  two  years  it  met 
in  his  home.  The  work  has  so  developed  with  the  years  that 
Miss  Bauernfeind's  mission  is  just  completing  a  $S,ooo  church 
and  a  kindergarten  building  on  the  grounds  provided  by  the 
factory.  Two  thousand  factory  hands  were  at  her  last  Christmas 
exercises. 


148  THE  MISSIONARY 

of  his  correspondents  are  carefully  preserved  in  large 
envelopes. 

A  missionary  can  always  increase  his  efficiency  and 
sometimes  multiply  it  many  fold  by  interesting  young 
men  or  women  to  devote  their  lives  to  Christian  work. 
Miss  Lavina  Oldham  has  been  quite  successful  in  per- 
suading young  men  to  enter  Christian  work.  She  has 
led,  all  told,  seven  Japanese  into  the  ministry,  some  of 
whom  have  attained  remarkable  success  and  won  scores 
of  converts. 

Every  missionary  in  Japan  is  more  or  less  the  medium 
of  information  to  the  country  which  sent  him  forth. 
His  letters  from  the  field  and  his  addresses  while  at 
home,  on  furlough,  do  much  to  correct  erroneous  notions, 
break  down  prejudice,  and  awaken  interest  in  missions. 
None  know  the  shady  side  of  their  respective  mission 
fields  better  than  the  missionaries,  yet  none  are  more 
charitable  even  to  partiality  than  they.  The  Japan  Evan- 
gelist for  English  readers  contains  many  fine  articles 
written  by  the  missionaries,  and  gives  an  interesting 
monthly  summary  of  mission  work  in  Japan.* 

Perhaps  no  missionary  has  been  more  widely  known  as 
a  friend  of  Japan  or  more  beloved  by  its  people  be- 
cause of  his  courteous  and  able  articles  and  speeches, 
than  the  late  John  H.  DeForest.  A  Japanese  daily  said 
of  him,  "  To  our  minds,  Dr.  DeForest's  work  was  worth 
more  than  Perry's  sixteen  battleships,  in  cementing 
friendship,  and  in  this  sense  we  extend  to  him,  our  now 
national  benefactor,  warm  welcome  hands."  t  The  Em- 

*The  Japan  Evangelist  was  first  published  by  W.  E.  Hoy  in 
1893.  Foreign  readers  can  secure  this  monthly  for  $1.50  a  year, 
postpaid,  by  sending  a  New  York  draft  to  the  Methodist  Pub- 
lishing House,  Tokyo. 

fThe  following  quotation  is  worthy  of  consideration  because 
of  the  friendships  which  would  result.  Fraternity  and  good- 
will are  big  assets  in  evangelization.  "  In  addition  to  Christian 
scholars  from  abroad,  Japan  needs  to  be  visited  by  Christians 
of  less  specialized  training— men  of  standing  in  business  and 


SOME  WAYS  OF  SERVICE  149 

peror  decorated  him  with  the  fourth  grade  of  the  Order 
of  the  Rising  Sun.  On  his  last  return  from  America 
an  immense  crowd  congregated  at  the  station  to  meet 
him  and  advertised  their  welcome  with  banners,  lanterns, 
and  fireworks. 

The  slums  in  every  large  city  in  Japan  are  open  doors 
wherein  are  the  ignorant,  the  distressed,  and  the  sin- 
burdened  awaiting  some  angel  of  mercy.  Years  ago 
Miss  Alice  Adams,  while  passing  through  the  slums  of 
Okayama,  was  moved  to  pity  when  the  dirty  little  urchins 
jeered  at  her.  She  retaliated  by  opening  a  Sunday 
School  which  has  grown  into  a  day  nursery,  a  day  and 
night  school  provided  with  sewing  and  manual-training 
classes,  and  a  hospital  which  gave  16,000  treatments  last 
year.  A  government  inspector  who  was  shown  through 
the  compound  and  told  of  the  lives  that  had  been  re- 
formed, remarked,  "  The  Imperial  Government  is  aware 
.  .  .  that  such  results  are  achieved  only  as  the  result  of 
Christian  work."  * 

H.  V.  S.  Peeke  says  in  his  printed  quarterly  letter: 
"  Machinery,  public  meetings,  tracts,  etc.,  have  their  use, 
but  I  am  confident  that,  after  all,  the  real  work  must  be 
done  at  the  closest  range,  by  a  large  number  of  devout 
men  and  women,  paid  and  unpaid,  and  that  visiting  for 
hours  around  a  brazier  and  a  devout  and  constant  use 
of  the  legs  are  indispensable."  Calling  is  an  effective 
part  of  a  missionary's  work.  It  is  a  work  in  which  a 
lady  missionary  has  peculiar  advantages,  however,  be- 

political  worlds,  leaders  in  industry  and  applied  science.  They 
could  do  much  for  the  spread  of  Christianity  by  coming  into 
intimate  contact  with  Japanese.  .  .  .  Would  it  not  be  but  a 
carrying  out  of  the  underlying  spirit  of  the  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement  which  declares  that  its  members  must  give  not  only 
money  but  voluntary  and  personal  service  for  the  evangelization 
of  the  world." — President  Harada's  article,  International  Re- 
view of  Missions,  January,  1912,  p.  95. 

*A  Social  Settlement  in  the  Slums  of  Okayama,  Missionary 
Review  of  the  World,  December,  1912. 


160  THE  MISSIONARY 

cause  of  a  more  ready  access  to  the  home  and  because 
Japanese  women  are  usually  found  at  home. 

In  every  mission  some  one  or  more  must  devote  a 
very  considerable  time  as  mission  secretary  and  treasurer, 
to  keep  up  the  financial  and  official  correspondence  of 
the  mission  with  the  home  Board.  The  Japanese  Gov- 
ernment has  given  a  charter  to  all  missions  which  have 
applied  according  to  Japanese  law,  by  which  the  mission 
can  hold  its  own  deeds  to  lands  and  buildings.*  The 
management  of  mission  property,  the  reporting  to  the 
government,  and  the  paying  of  taxes  and  insurance 
premiums,  consume  much  time,  but  thousands  of  dol- 
lars are  saved  for  the  mission  whose  business  department 
is  well  managed. 

The  middle  schools  and  schools  for  higher  education 
are  a  great  field  for  any  soul-winner.  The  educated 
classes  have  but  little  prejudice  against  Christianity  and 
students  especially  are  open  to  the  approaches  of  any 
missionary  or  English  teacher  who  is  looked  upon  as  an 
epitome  of  all  that  the  Occident  knows  or  can  do.  A 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  English  teacher,  in  speaking  of  his  own 
opportunities,  says :  "  I  know  of  no  other  work  any- 
where, in  which  a  fellow  can  make  his  life  count  for 
more.  I  doubt  if  any  missionaries  have  such  oppor- 
tunities, and  I  feel  certain  that  no  college  graduates  can 
step  into  work  that  brings  bigger  results."  f 

What  missionary  has  not  felt  the  lamentable  limita- 
tions of  his  own  strength?  What  missionary  has  not 
wished  a  thousand  times  that  he  were  the  equal  of  a  band 
one  hundred  strong,  that  night,  as  well  as  day,  he  might 
answer  every  call,  enter  every  door,  and  vigorously  cut 
wide  swaths  in  the  golden  fields  bending  and  waiting  for 
the  harvesters?  And  will  the  harvesters  come?  Or 
must  the  harvest  wait  and  the  reapers  faint  for 
weariness ! 

*  No  single  individual,  if  he  be  a  foreigner,  can  hold  a  deed  to 
land,  although  he  may  be  able  to  lease  lands, 
t  Quoted  by  H.  Loomis,  in  The  New  Era. 


X 

A  FEW  WELL  KNOWN   MISSIONARIES 


What  you  are  speaks  so  loudly  that  I  cannot  hear  what  you 
say. — Emerson. 

I  do  not  know  of  any  man  who  requires  more  big  thinking 
or  more  statesmanlike  action  than  the  missionary.— F.  M.  Rains. 

Now  is  the  time  we  firmly  believe  for  you  to  bestir  your- 
selves and  manifest  the  seriousness  of  your  purpose.  You 
simply  must  not  furl  the  banner  for  Christ!  Nay,  rather,  you 
should  lift  it  up  and  advance  and  proclaim  the  gospel  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. — S.  Ebina,  Japan  Evangelist,  April, 
1909,  p.  129. 

It  was  the  Jew  who  brought  the  gospel  to  Rome,  a  Roman 
that  took  it  to  France,  a  Frenchman  that  took  it  to  Scandinavia, 
a  Scotchman  that  evangelized  Ireland,  and  an  Irishman  that,  in 
turn,  made  the  missionary  conquest  of  Scotland.  No  people 
have  received  Christianity  except  at  the  hands  of  an  alien. — 
Alva  W.  Taylor,  "The  Social  Work  of  Christian  Missions," 
p.  41. 

Cannot  you  go  to  Christ  to-day  and  find  the  idea  of  yourself 
in  Him?  It  is  certainly  there.  In  Christ's  thought  at  this  mo- 
ment there  is  a  picture  of  you  which  is  perfectly  distinct  and 
separate  and  clear.  ...  If  you  give  up  your  life  to  serving  and 
loving  Christ,  one  of  the  blessings  of  your  consecration  of 
yourself  to  Him  will  be  that  in  Him  there  will  be  open  to  you 
this  pattern  of  yourself.  You  will  see  your  possible  self  as  He 
sees  it,  and  then  life  will  have  but  one  purpose  and  wish  for 
you,  which  will  be  that  you  may  reahze  that  idea  of  yourself 
which  you  have  seen  in  him. — Phillips  Brooks. 

If  you  can  wait  and  not  be  tired  by  waiting, 
Or,  being  lied  about,  don't  deal  in  lies. 
Or,  being  hated,  don't  give  way  to  hating, 
And  yet  don't  look  too  good  or  talk  too  wise ; 

If  you  can  dream  and  not  make  dreams  your  master, 
If  you  can  think  and  not  make  thought  your  aim; 
If  you  can  meet  with  triumph  and  disaster. 
And  treat  those  two  imposters  just  the  same; 

If  you  can  fill  each  unforgiving  minute 
With  sixty  seconds'  worth  of  distance  run — 
Yours  is  the  earth  and  everything  that's  in  it. 
And  which  is  more,  you'll  be  a  man,  my  son. 

— RuDYARD  Kipling. 


X 

A  FEW  WELL-KNOWN  MISSIONARIES 

MISS  MARY  E.  KIDDER,  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  was  the  first  unmarried  woman  ap- 
pointed by  a  mission  board  for  service  in  Japan. 
Previous  to  her  coming,  in  1869,  Miss  Caroline  Adri- 
ance  was  in  Japan  for  a  short  time  at  her  own  charges. 
Miss  Kidder  came  with  S.  R.  Brown  and  wife  and  pro- 
ceeded with  them  at  once  to  Niigata.  They  were  car- 
ried in  palanquins  and  were  sixteen  days  making  the 
journey.  A  guard  of  nine  soldiers  accompanied  them. 
Some  time  after  her  return  to  Yokohama,  she  opened 
a  girls'  school  at  Ise  Yama,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  governor  of  the  province,  who  furnished  her  the 
house  and  a  covered  jinrikisha  with  two  men  to  pull 
her.  By  1875,  the  school  grew  into  the  well-known 
Ferris  Seminary.  In  1873,  Miss  Kidder  was  married 
to  Edward  R.  Miller,  who  survives  her  and  publishes  the 
periodicals  that  she  edited  so  creditably  for  years.  Mrs. 
Miller  was  a  queenly  woman,  from  whose  face  every 
grace  shone.  From  years  of  experience,  filled  with 
kindly  deeds,  she  had  come  to  know  the  truth  of  the 
Saviour's  words,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive." 

Years  ago,  tidings  of  the  lamentable  condition  of  Eu- 
rasian girls  in  Japan  reached  the  ears  of  the  Woman's 
Union  Missionary  Society  of  America.  It  was  not  long 
till  this  parent  organization  of  Women's  Missionary 
Boards  had  consecrated  Mrs.  Mary  Pruyn,  Mrs.  Louise 
H.  Pierson,  and  Miss  I.  N.  Crosby  for  their  work  in 
Yokohama.  A  few  months  after  their  arrival,  in  1871, 
they  opened  their  school  for  girls.     For  a  while  it  was 

153 


154*  THE  MISSIONARY 

known  as  the  American  Mission  Home,  but  in  later 
years  it  has  been  called  the  "  Kyoritsu  Jo  Gakko."  Mrs. 
Pruyn,  after  serving  as  superintendent,  returned  to  the 
United  States.  Since  her  departure.  Miss  Crosby  has 
served  as  superintendent.  By  her  orders  the  buildings 
were  so  well  constructed  that  the  carpenter  said  that 
even  if  an  earthquake  or  storm  should  roll  them  down 
the  hill,  they  could  not  break  apart.  Miss  Crosby  is  a 
born  manager,  a  successful  teacher,  full  of  wit,  life,  and 
faith.  In  her  twoscore  years  of  service  she  has  spent 
but  two  years  in  the  home  land  and  she  has  seen  more 
years  of  actual  mission  service  than  any  woman  living 
in  Japan. 

Miss  Clara  A.  Converse  came  to  Japan  in  1889,  leaving 
a  very  important  position  in  Vermont  Academy  to  under- 
take the  building  up  of  the  Mary  Colby  Home,  a  Baptist 
school  in  Yokohama.  This  school  had  been  but  little 
more  than  started  by  her  predecessors,  and  it  was  her 
work  to  organize,  develop,  and  build  up  the  institution. 
Through  her  wise  leadership,  the  school  has  become 
one  of  the  best  girls'  schools  in  Japan.  The  school 
buildings  and  ground  secured  in  the  early  years  of  her 
management  were  so  inadequate  for  the  growth  of  the 
school,  that  recently  a  large  tract  of  land  has  been  se- 
cured in  the  country  near  Kanagawa  and  a  splendid 
plant  has  been  established.  The  influence  of  Miss  Con- 
verse over  the  girls  under  her  care  has  been  very  un- 
usual, and  a  large  number  of  them  have  been  trained  by 
her  to  fill  very  important  posts  as  teachers  and  in  other 
walks  of  life.  The  graduates  of  the  school  have  been 
much  sought  after  as  teachers  in  the  Government 
schools. 

Miss  Bertha  Clawsen  was  born  at  Strawn,  Kansas. 
When  a  girl,  she  lost  both  her  parents  and  was  thrown 
upon  her  own  resources.  After  graduation  from  the 
Tri-State  College  at  Angola,  Indiana,  she  taught  for  six 
years  previous  to  her  coming  to  Japan  in  1898.     Thus 


A  FEW  WELL-KNOWN  MISSIONARIES      155 

her  experiences  have  combined  to  make  her  an  efficient 
teacher,  as  well  as  patient,  tactful,  and  resourceful  in 
character.  After  serving  both  in  Akita  and  Osaka,  she 
was  called  to  Tokyo,  to  the  presidency  of  the  Margaret 
K.  Long  Girls'  School,  named  in  memory  of  the  mother 
of  R.  A.  Long,  a  prominent  Christian  and  philan- 
thropist. The  school,  which  began  in  a  rented  building 
in  1905,  moved  into  the  new  building  on  its  dedication, 
October  11,  1907.  The  school  has  several  departments, 
a  Girls'  High  School,  a  Training  School  for  Bible 
Women,  a  Kindergarten,  and  a  Department  of  Home 
Economics. 

Miss  Ruth  Frances  Davis,  the  World's  Woman's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union  representative  in  Japan  since 
1908,  is  a  graduate  of  Boston  University.  Her  father  is 
a  Methodist  minister.  Her  mother,  Mrs.  Edith  Smith 
Davis,  is  National  and  World  Superintendent  of  Sci- 
entific Temperance  Instruction  in  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  who 
was  sent  by  our  government  as  one  of  the  twelve  dele- 
gates to  the  Anti-alcoholic  Congress  at  The  Hague.  Miss 
Davis  inherits  her  parents'  ability  and  is  highly  gifted  as 
a  writer  and  popular  speaker.  Her  enthusiasm  and 
capacity  for  work  are  unusual.  She  has  made  extensive 
tours  throughout  the  Empire  and  has  successfully  car- 
ried out  a  prize  Temperance  Essay  Contest  among 
students  in  the  Middle  Schools  of  Japan. 

Charles  E.  Garst  was  born  in  Bacon,  Ohio.  It  had 
been  his  mother's  prayer  that  he  might  be  a  minister. 
He  was  educated  at  the  State  Agricultural  College  at 
Ames,  Iowa,  and  at  West  Point.  During  his  studies  at 
West  Point,  he  came  across  the  editorials  of  Isaac  Er- 
rett,  the  Editor  of  the  Christian  Standard,  and  thus  be- 
came a  Disciple  of  Christ.  In  1883,  in  company  with  his 
wife  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  T.  Smith,  he  reached 
Yokohama  and  opened  the  first  work  of  his  mission  in 
Akita.  From  that  time  on,  he  devoted  himself  to  country 
evangelism.    Rain,  snow,  exposures,  and  privations  never 


156  THE  MISSIONARY 

turned  his  purpose.  After  his  death  a  company  of  mis- 
sionaries found  a  scroll  hanging  on  the  wall  of  an  inn 
in  a  mountain  village.  On  the  scroll  were  written  the 
words,  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see 
God."  The  missionaries  were  told  that  a  tall  foreigner 
by  the  name  of  Garst  had  tarried  for  the  night  some 
years  before,  and  the  innkeeper  so  admired  his  skill  in 
writing  that  he  had  asked  for  a  memento  of  his  visit.* 

Bishop  John  McKim  was  born  in  Pittsfield,  Mass., 
in  1852.  After  graduating  at  Griswold  College,  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Nellie  A.  Cole,  a  minister's  daughter. 
In  1879,  he  came  to  Japan  as  a  missionary  of  the  Amer- 
ican Episcopal  Church.  Bishop  McKim,  during  his  resi- 
dence in  Osaka,  organized  the  mission  of  his  church  in 
the  provinces  of  Yamato,  Omi,  Iga,  Ise,  and  Wakasa. 
In  1893,  he  was  elected  Bishop  of  Tokyo  and  was  con- 
secrated to  his  office  in  St.  Thomas  Church,  New  York 
City.  For  a  time  he  was  the  only  bishop  of  his  church 
in  Japan.  Though  the  work  was  in  a  more  or  less  dis- 
organized state,  by  his  patient  and  wise  leadership  the 
mission  was  developed,  and  strategic  points  were  opened 
between  Tokyo  and  Aomori.  He  has  received  several 
degrees,  the  latest  of  which  was  conferred  upon  him  by 
Oxford  University  in  1908,  in  recognition  of  his  ability 
in  promoting  the  establishment  of  the  church  in  the  Far 
East.  As  a  man,  Bishop  McKim  is  characterized  by  un- 
selfishness, deep  spirituality,  and  good  judgment. 

William  Imbrie  was  born  in  New  Jersey  and  is  a 
graduate  of  Princeton  University  and  Princeton  The- 
ological Seminary.  After  a  brief  pastorate  in  the  United 
States,  he  came  to  Japan  as  a  missionary  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  in  1875.  During  most  of  his  life  in 
Japan  he  has  been  a  teacher  in  the  Theological  Depart- 
ment of  Meiji  Gakuin.  Among  his  writings  are  a  "  Life 
of  Christ  for  Theological  Students  "  and  several  com- 

*  "  A  West  Pointer  in  the  Land  of  the  Mikado,"  the  biography 
of  Mr.  Garst,  written  by  his  wife,  has  just  come  from  the  press. 


A  FEW  WELL-KNOWN  MISSIONARIES      157 

mentaries.  In  1890,  he  received  the  thanks  of  the  Synod, 
for  writing  the  "  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Church  " 
("Church  of  Christ  in  Japan")  and  for  work  upon  its 
Constitution  and  Canons.  In  1909,  the  Emperor  con- 
ferred on  him  the  Fourth  Degree  of  the  Order  of  the 
Rising  Sun.  Mr.  Imbrie  is  an  able  champion  of  evan- 
gehcal  faith  and  an  eminent  missionary  leader. 

Daniel  Crosby  Greene  was  the  first  missionary  of  the 
American  Board  to  Japan.  He  is  therefore  looked  upon 
as  the  Father  of  the  Mission,  but  this  means  much  more 
than  that  he  was  chronologically  first  on  the  field.  What 
the  Elder  Statesmen  are  to  Japan,  he  has  been  and  is  to 
the  mission.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Greene  arrived  in  Yokohama 
November  30,  1869.  First  in  Kobe,  and  later  in  other 
stations,  he  has  been  associated  with  the  beginnings  of 
the  Congregational  Mission  Work  in  Japan.  In  Yoko- 
hama, 1 874- 1 880,  he  contributed  largely  to  the  success 
of  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament.  Since  1890  he 
has  resided  in  Tokyo,  where  he  has  been  a  tower  of 
strength  to  the  mission  by  his  work  on  committees  and 
by  his  close  touch  with  the  Christian  leaders.  As  the 
first  editor  of  The  Christian  Movement,  he  has  done 
much  to  familiarize  the  West  with  the  relation  of  Chris- 
tianity to  New  Japan.* 

Julius  Soper  arrived  in  Japan  in  1873,  and  is  one  of 
the  charter  members  of  his  mission.  At  the  first  annual 
meeting  of  the  mission  he  was  appointed  to  reside  in 
Tokyo,  which  has  been  his  residence  most  of  the  time. 
He  has  given  nearly  forty  years  of  faithful  service  to 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Japan.  His  genial 
spirit,  ready  use  of  the  language,  and  great  willingness 
to  serve  every  good  cause,  have  combined  to  bring  him 
in  great  demand.  For  a  number  of  years  he  was  the 
head  of  the  Theological  School  at  Aoyama,  Tokyo.  He 
has   had   connection   with  many   important  movements 

*He  is  at  present  the  president  of  the  American  Peace  Society 
in  Japan  and  has  received  a  decoration  from  the  Emperor. 


158  THE  MISSIONARY 

springing  up  in  New  Japan  and  to  the  Temperance  move- 
ment he  has  given  special  care  and  effort.  At  a  recent 
Annual  Temperance  Gathering  in  Tokyo  (which  gather- 
ing was  also  a  farewell  to  Mr.  Soper,  as  he  was  about 
to  return  to  America  on  account  of  Mrs.  Soper's  health), 
a  number  of  experienced  leaders  spoke  of  him  as  the 
Father  of  the  Temperance  cause  in  Japan. 

D.  B.  Schneder  was  born  in  1857,  at  .Bowmansville, 
Penn,  After  graduating  from  Franklin  and  Marshall 
College,  in  1880,  he  entered  the  Eastern  Theological  Sem- 
inary of  the  Reformed  Church,  from  which  he  graduated 
in  1883.  Both  in  college  and  in  the  seminary  he  ranked 
very  high  as  a  student.  In  1887,  he  reached  Japan  and 
entered  at  once  upon  his  duties  as  teacher  in  the  North 
Japan  College  started  by  W.  E.  Hoy,  now  resident  in 
China.  Since  1901,  he  has  served  as  its  president,  and 
it  is  largely  due  to  his  faithfulness,  tact,  good  judgment, 
and  fine  scholarship  that  the  college  has  attained  its  well- 
known  reputation  and  success.  During  his  furloughs,  he 
has  visited  Germany  twice  for  study.  He  has  translated 
Schaff's  "  The  Person  of  Christ  "  into  Japanese  and  pub- 
lished in  pamphlet  form  a  series  of  lectures  on  Buddhism. 
Mr.  Schneder  is  an  able  essayist  and  champion  of  Chris- 
tian education. 

Capt.  Luke  W.  Bickel,  the  son  of  Dr.  Philipp  Bickel 
of  the  Baptist  Publication  House  in  Cassell,  Germany, 
was  born  in  Cincinnati,  in  1886.  He  attended  school  at 
Cleveland,  Hamburg,  and  Berlin  and  was  educated  with 
the  idea  of  going  as  a  medical  missionary  to  Africa. 
However,  he  was  sent  to  sea  because  of  ill-health  and 
spent  some  years  in  service  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  where 
he  worked  up  to  a  captain's  position.  His  sudden  turn 
to  Japan  in  1898  was  as  sudden  as  his  turn  to  the  sea. 
There  are  unmistakable  evidence  that  God  shaped  this 
man's  life  for  a  special  service  among  the  unevangelized 
islands  of  Japan.  Captain  Bickel  is  a  tall  man  with  a 
sunburned  face.    His  faith  is  as  boundless  as  his  energy, 


A  FEW  WELL-KNOWN  MISSIONARIES      159 

and  the  measure  of  his  love  is  best  computed  by  his 
work.  His  ship  flies  the  American  flag  and  is  kept  busy 
among  the  islands  of  the  Inland  Sea.  Captain  Bickel 
has  a  field  of  a  million  and  a  half  of  people.  It  is  his 
rule  to  go  where  no  one  else  has  gone,  to  visit  every 
island  and  village,  welcome  or  no  welcome,  and  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  all  classes  without  partiality. 

Galen  M.  Fisher  was  born  in  Oakland,  California,  in 
1873,  of  New  England  parentage.  He  graduated  from 
the  University  of  California  in  1906.  After  graduation 
he  served  the  Boston  Association  as  Metropolitan 
Student  Secretary.  Accepting  a  call  from  the  Interna- 
tional Committee  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  to  represent  them  in 
Japan,  he  arrived  in  Tokyo  in  January,  1898.  As  senior 
secretary  of  the  International  Committee's  force  in 
Japan,  Mr.  Fisher  has  achieved  great  success.  He  has 
had  special  relations  to  the  movements  resulting  in  the 
Army  work,  the  raising  of  fifty  thousand  dollars  for 
student  hostels,  in  1907,  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars  for  hostels  and  other  buildings,  in  1910.  He 
has  shown  marked  ability  in  editorial  work  and  in  the 
development  of  Bible  study  among  the  Student  Associa- 
tions. He  has  represented  the  Japanese  Union  at  the 
W.  C.  S.  F.  Conferences  at  Versailles,  Zeist,  and  Tokyo 
and  the  International  Committee  at  the  Edinburgh  Con- 
ference. 

Archbishop  Nicolai,  Japan's  greatest  missionary,  has 
had  few  equals  since  Paul's  day.  He  was  of  royal  de- 
scent, and  was  born  at  Melyoza,  Russia,  in  1836.  His 
mind  was  turned  to  Japan  by  reading  the  diary  of  Rear- 
Admiral  Golownin,  who  had  been  in  Japan  in  181 1. 
Though  young,  he  was  appointed  in  i860  as  chaplain  to 
the  newly  opened  Russian  Consulate  at  Hakodate.  He 
journeyed  overland  across  Siberia,  and  after  spending 
the  winter  at  Nicolaievsk,  he  reached  Hakodate  in  July, 
1861.  In  April,  1868,  he  secretly  baptized  his  first  three 
converts.     The   first  convert  was   Takuma   Sawabe,  a 


160  THE  MISSIONARY 

Shinto  priest,  who  had  burst  into  his  room  with  the  in- 
tention of  kilHng  him  as  an  enemy  of  Japan.  The  young 
chaplain  persuaded  him  that  he  could  not  justly  condemn 
Christianity  without  studying  it.  The  bigoted  priest 
yielded  to  the  suggestion  and  thus  came  to  faith.  By 
1872,  when  the  first  Protestant  church  was  established 
in  Yokohama,  Pere  Nicolai  had  already  baptized  more 
than  a  score.  In  his  fifty-two  years  of  missionary 
service,  much  of  the  time  he  was  the  only  foreigner. 
From  the  first,  only  ten  other  missionaries  were  asso- 
ciated with  him.  He  translated  the  New  Testament,  be- 
sides several  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  He  read  and 
wrote  with  ease  the  most  difficult  of  Chinese  ideographs. 
His  labours  were  prodigious;  he  loved  the  people,  and 
upon  the  Church  and  its  clergy  he  has  left  an  ineradicable 
impress  of  his  towering  personality.* 

*  Interesting  articles  about  Archbishop  Nicolai  were  published 
by  C.  F.  Sweet,  in  the  January  issue  of  the  International  Re- 
view of  Missions  for  1913,  and  by  David  S.  Spencer  in  the 
Japan  Evangelist,  March,  1912. 


PART   THREE 

THE    KINGDOM 


I 

THE   COMING   OF  THE   KINGDOM 


The  Bible  has  been  the  basis  and  mainspring  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  development  for  the  last  three  centuries,  having  moulded 
its  morals,  lifted  its  legislation  and  its  jurisprudence,  and  inspired 
its  literature.— Whitelaw  Reid. 

Now  understand  me  well:  It  is  provided  in  the  essence  of 
things  that  from  any  fruition  of  success,  no  matter  what,  shall 
come  forth  something  to  make  a  greater  struggle  necessary. — 
Walt  Whitman. 

The  most  atrocious  of  all  monopolies  is  found  in  the  conduct 
of  the  man,  the  church,  or  the  nation  which,  through  opposition 
or  indifference  to  missions,  monopolizes  the  knowledge  of  Christ. 
— Robert  E.  Speer,  quoted  in  "  A  Man's  Religion,"  p.  212. 

OLD  JAPAN,  1868.  The  evil  sect  called  Christian  is  strictly 
prohibited.  Suspicious  persons  should  be  reported  to  the  proper 
officers  and  rewards  will  be  given. — Edict  of  Shoganate. 

NEW  JAPAN,  1889.  Japanese  subjects  shall,  within  limits 
not  prejudicial  to  peace  and  order  and  not  antagonistic  to  their 
duties  as  subjects,  enjoy  freedom  of  religious  belief. — Imperial 
Constitution. 

It  also  should  be  recorded,  perhaps,  that  the  Emperor  of 
Japan  received  the  President  of  the  United  Society  of  Christian 
Endeavour  in  a  private  audience,  an  honour  which  is  very  rarely 
accorded  and  which  was  by  no  means  a  personal  honour,  but 
indicated  the  good-will  of  the  Emperor  toward  America  and 
toward  the  Christian  institutions  represented  by  the  visitor. — 
"The  Story  of  the  Year,"  p.  35. 

The  Western  form  of  Christianity  was  no  perplexity  to  me. 
I  did  not  expect  to  have  a  Japanese  form.  Our  ships,  trains, 
schools,  offices,  system  of  government,  system  of  medicine  all 
have  Western  forms.  We  are  used  to  accepting  ideas  and 
methods  and  generally  take  forms.  Our  students  of  science  and 
philosophy  have  not  been  especially  perplexed  by  the  Western 
form  of  these  sciences. — A  Waseda  University  Student,  quoted 
in  Japan  Evangelist,  April,  1912,  p.  172. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  KINGDOM 

SCARCELY  had  Japan's  treaty  ports  been  opened  in 
the  summer  of  1859,  and  scarcely  had  the  ink  on 
her  newly  formed  treaties  dried,  till  a  number  of 
Protestant  missionaries,  under  regular  appointment,  en- 
tered Japan.  J.  Liggins  was  the  first.  He  was  followed 
by  C.  M.  Williams.  Both  were  representatives  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States.  Dr. 
Hepburn  and  wife,  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  arrived 
at  Kanagawa  in  October.  He  was  followed  by  three 
missionaries,  with  their  wives,  of  the  Reformed  Church, 
namely,  S.  R.  Brown,  Dr.  D.  B.  Simmons,  and  G.  V. 
Verbeck.  Other  missionaries  followed,  and  thus  the 
work  of  faith  began  by  a  few  American  missionaries  has 
grown  to  mighty  proportions.  After  five  years  of  labour, 
on  the  4th  of  November,  1864,  the  first  convert  was  bap- 
tized.* James  Ballagh  had  a  Buddhist  teacher  by  the 
name  of  Yano  Ryuzan.  Together  they  had  translated 
the  Gospel  of  John,  which  Mr.  Ballagh  purposely  under- 
took that  the  work  might  lead  to  his  teacher's  conver- 
sion. Great  was  his  joy  when  at  last  he  baptized  him 
in  the  presence  of  Dr.  Hepburn  and  Ryuzan's  family.f 

Up  to  the  close  of  1871  there  had  been  five  baptisms 
in  west  Japan  and  six  in  central  Japan,  not  quite  one 

*  See  Appendix  B  for  record  of  the  first  baptisms. 

t  The  author  has  been  greatly  assisted  in  preparing  this  chapter 
by  a  "History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  Japan,"  by  H.  Ritter; 
the  second  volume  of  a  "  History  of  Christianity  in  Japan,"  by 
Otis  Carey ;  the  proceedings  of  the  Osaka  Conference  in  1883, 
wherein  is  Dr.  Verbeck's  "  History  of  Protestant  Missions 
in  Japan."  Details  about  the  first  converts  were  furnished  by 
James  Ballagh. 

163 


164.  THE  KINGDOM 

a  year  since  the  missionaries  had  first  come.  A  big  event 
was  now  at  hand — the  organization  of  the  first  Protestant 
Church  in  Yokohama  on  March  lo,  1872.  The  year 
opened  with  a  week  of  prayer.  Japanese  students,  mis- 
sionaries, and  residents  in  Yokohama  attended  the  meet- 
ings. The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  was  studied  and  ex- 
pounded. The  meetings  so  grew  in  interest  that  they 
continued  two  months.  Young  Japanese  who  had  come 
to  the  missionaries  to  learn  the  secrets  of  Christianity 
that  they  might  oppose  it,  now  prayed  so  earnestly  that 
it  was  the  common  remark,  "  The  prayers  of  these  Japa- 
nese take  the  heart  out  of  us."  Some  of  them  were 
pupils  of  James  Ballagh.  He  had  the  pleasure  of  bap- 
tizing nine  who,  together  with  two  other  converts,  were 
organized  into  the  first  church.  The  name  of  the  church 
was  chosen  by  the  Japanese.  One  missionary  proposed 
the  name  "  Choro  Kwai "  (Elder  Church),  but  Mr. 
Ozawa,  one  of  the  converts,  objected,  as  it  was  not 
found  in  the  Bible.  So  they  settled  on  the  "  Church 
of  Christ  in  Japan."  A  young  man  who  later  became 
Bishop  Honda,  and  another,  Mr.  Kumano,  who  is  the 
present  secretary  of  the  Meiji  Gakuin  (Schools),  were 
among  the  charter  members.  Later  on  a  little  stone 
building  was  erected  for  the  church.  The  structure  is 
still  standing,  not  far  from  the  American  Consulate. 

The  first  religious  tract,  as  well  as  the  first  book  of 
importance  (a  Japanese-English  Dictionary)  was  issued 
by  Dr.  Hepburn  in  1867.  The  first  book  of  the  New 
Testament  issued  in  Japan  was  the  Gospel  of  Matthew, 
translated  by  J.  Goble  of  the  Baptist  Mission,  in  1871. 
The  year  1873  was  a  momentous  year  for  missions. 
February  24,  the  decree  was  issued  which  resulted  in 
the  removal  of  the  signboards  against  Christianity,  which 
for  two  and  a  half  centuries  had  stood  at  every  important 
cross-road.  A  notable  event  of  this  year  was  the 
presentation  by  Dr.  Hepburn  of  a  copy  of  the  English 
Bible  to  the   Emperor,  also  a  copy  of  his  Japanese- 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  KINGDOM       165 

English  Dictionary.  The  formalities  were  arranged  by 
United  States  Minister  De  Long.*  The  same  year,  the 
second  Protestant  church  in  Japan  was  organized  in  the 
capital.  It  was  a  Presbyterian  church  of  eight  members, 
who  chose  David  Thompson  as  its  pastor.  Again  this 
same  year  the  old-style  calendar  was  substituted  for  the 
Gregorian.  Kant  said :  "  The  existence  of  the  Bible  as 
a  book  for  the  people  is  the  greatest  benefit  which  the 
human  race  has  ever  experienced."  In  1872,  the  mis- 
sionaries appointed  a  committee  to  translate  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  New  Testament  was  completed  in  1880,  and 
the  Old  Testament  in  i888.t 

From  1859,  counting  wives,  but  fifty-one  missionaries 
had  arrived  in  Japan.  In  1873,  forty-five  missionaries 
reached  Japan,  for  a  great  door  of  opportunity  had 
opened  by  the  removal  of  the  anti-Christian  edicts.  Thus, 
after  fifteen  years  of  bold  endeavour  and  praying,  with 
tears,  the  missionaries  had  moved  forward  as  God  had 
opened  the  way.  The  Christian  wedge  had  been  driven 
so  firmly  and  deeply  into  the  log  of  idolatry  that  a  big 
split  began  which  has  lengthened  and  widened  with  the 
years. 

Two  men  belonging  to  this  period  must  be  mentioned 
because  of  the  far-reaching  contributions  which  their 
labours  made  to  the  establishment  of  Christianity  in 
Japan.    They  are  Capt.  L.  L.  Janes  and  Joseph  Hardy 

*  In  the  year  1898,  the  Emperor  was  presented  with  the  com- 
plete Bible  in  his  own  tongue,  through  the  intermediary  of  Count 
Okuma,  the  Premier. 

t  At  a  large  audience,  when  announcement  of  the  completion  of 
the  Bible  translation  was  made,  Dr.  Hepburn  said :  "  What  more 
precious  gift,  more  precious  than  mountains  of  gold  or  silver, 
could  the  Christian  peoples  of  the  West  give  to  this  nation? 
May  this  Sacred  Book  become  to  Japan  what  it  has  come  to  be 
for  the  peoples  of  the  West — a  source  of  life,  a  messenger  of 
joy  and  peace,  the  foundation  of  a  true  civilization,  and  of 
social  and  political  prosperity  and  greatness." — ^John  H.  De 
Forest,  "  Sunrise  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom,"  p.  108. 


166  THE  KINGDOM 

Neesima.  Singularly  enough,  the  streams  of  influence 
emanating  from  their  lives  were  to  meet  in  Kyoto  in  the 
school  which  has  since  grown  to  the  proportions  of  a 
university.  In  1872,  a  school  was  opened  in  Kumamoto 
by  the  prince  of  that  province,  in  which  Captain  Janes, 
a  graduate  of  West  Point,  was  employed  as  a  teacher. 
With  a  strategy  worthy  of  a  general,  he  said  nothing 
about  Christianity  until  two  or  three  years  had  passed. 
Then,  armoured  with  the  language  and  ties  of  friend- 
ship, he  invited  some  of  his  pupils  to  a  study  of  the 
[Bible.  With  a  masterful  passion  he  urged  them  to  accept 
Christ.  Boys  who  hated  the  Bible  entered  the  class, 
saying,  "  Knowledge  of  the  enemy  is  the  first  step 
towards  victory  over  them."  One  Sunday,  on  a  hill 
near  Kumamoto,  forty  of  them  met  and  made  a  covenant 
and  signed  their  names  on  an  "  oath  paper  "  to  preach  the 
Gospel  even  if  they  lost  their  lives.  Thirty  endured 
the  persecutions  which  followed  this  noted  meeting. 
Most  of  the  thirty  entered  the  newly  founded  Doshisha 
at  Kyoto  to  prepare  for  Christian  work.  They  grad- 
uated from  the  first  class,  becoming  "  evangelists,  pastors, 
teachers,  and  editors."  Thus  the  infant  church  was 
strengthened  by  a  providentially  prepared  band  of  intel- 
ligent and  earnest  workers. 

Joseph  Hardy  Neesima  was  the  gift  of  God  to  Japan. 
We  should  pray  for  more  such  gifts.  He  was  born  in 
Tokyo.  A  spell  of  measles  threw  him  out  of  the  naval 
school  he  was  attending,  and  one  day  at  a  friend's  home 
he  found  a  Chinese  translation  of  "  Bible  History  by 
an  American  Missionary."  The  spell  of  measles  and 
the  Bible  history  fixed  his  career.  He  ran  away  to 
Hakodate  and  was  secreted  in  a  ship  bound  for  Shanghai. 
The  death  penalty  was  always  visited  upon  any  Japanese 
leaving  the  land  in  those  days.  But  at  the  risk  of  his 
life  he  was  determined  to  learn  more  of  the  God  who 
had  made  heaven  and  earth.  At  Shanghai  he  was 
taken  aboard  a  ship  bound  for  Boston.    The  ship's  owner 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  KINGDOM       167 

was  Alpheus  Hardy,  Chairman  of  the  Prudential  Com- 
mittee of  the  American  Board.  Neesima  wrote  thus 
of  his  voyage  to  America :  "  Every  night,  after  I  went 
to  bed,  I  prayed  to  God :  Please !  don't  cast  away  me 
into  miserable  condition.  Please !  let  me  reach  my  great 
aim."  *  He  reached  his  great  aim.  He  graduated  at 
Andover.  His  tears  and  his  persistence  won  five  thou- 
sand dollars,  which  led  to  the  founding  of  the  Congre- 
gational school  at  Kyoto.  Before  his  appeal  at  Rutland, 
the  Committee  were  lukewarm  on  the  subject  of  a  school 
for  Japan.  His  return  to  Japan  was  like  Paul's  de- 
parture from  Damascus.  Henceforth  he  was  to  know 
nothing  among  his  own  people  save  Christ  and  Him 
crucified.  In  his  own  personality  he  embodied  the  energy 
of  a  score.  Handsome  offers  of  a  governmental  position 
did  not  move  him  because  God  had  chosen  him  to  move 
the  nation. 

None  but  the  pioneers  know  of  the  perils  and  hard- 
ships of  the  early  days.  Here  is  a  part  of  a  tender 
missive  received  by  some  missionaries  in  Kyoto :  "  To 
the  four  American  Barbarians,  Davis,  Gordon,  Learned 
&  Greene;  we  speak  to  you  who  have  come  with  words 
that  are  sweet  in  the  mouth  but  a  sword  in  the  heart, 
bad  priests,  American  barbarians,  four  robbers.  .  .  .  Japan 
being  truly  flourishing,  excellent  country,  in  ancient  times 
when  Buddhism  first  came  to  Japan  those  who  brought 
it  were  killed;  in  the  same  way  you  must  be  killed." 
Signed  "  Patriots  in  the  peaceful  city ;  Believers  in 
Shinto."  Idolatry  made  every  effort,  by  lectures,  by  pam- 
phlets, by  government  pressure,  to  oppose  and  obscure 
the  light  of  the  Cross.  A  society  called  "  Yaso  Taiji" 
was  organized  to  exterminate  Christianity.  Buddhist 
and  Shinto  priests  went  throughout  the  land  organizing 
sister  societies  and  speaking  against  the  faith.  "  One 
priest  travelled  about  the  country  urging  the  people  not 

*  Arthur  Sherburne  Hardy,  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Joseph  Hardy 
Neesima,"  p.  lo. 


168  THE  KINGDOM 

to  use  kerosene  oil,  since  it  came  from  a  foreign  land."  * 
It  has  been  a  big  jump  from  that  day  to  the  other  day 
when  a  Buddhist  priest  helped  D.  Norman  distribute  a 
lot  of  Christian  tracts  to  a  train-load  of  Buddhists  re- 
turning from  their  favourite  temple  at  Nagano.  A  few 
summers  ago,  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Summer  Conference  was 
held  in  a  Buddhist  Monastery  near  Komoro.  A  mis- 
sionary said  the  other  day  that  he  and  his  friends  were 
free  to  distribute  tracts  at  temples,  to  the  crowds  who 
gathered  at  festal  times.  Some  of  the  delusions  which 
prejudiced  the  people  then,  some  of  which  still  remain, 
can  be  noted  in  the  answers  made  to  Joseph  Cook,  a 
Boston  lecturer,  who  visited  Japan  in  1882.  In  re- 
sponse to  the  question,  "  What  are  the  chief  objections 
made  by  educated  natives  in  Japan  to  the  acceptance  of 
Christianity  ? "  ten  pastors  and  teachers  in  Kyoto  re- 
plied :  "  They  think  that  Christianity  will  destroy  patri- 
otism, filial  piety,  loyalty  to  the  Mikado,  give  rise  to  reli- 
gious wars,  become  secret  means  of  foreign  interference. 
They  regard  the  supernatural  elements  of  Chris- 
tianity as  an  outgrowth  of  superstition  and  to  be  antag- 
onistic to  modern  sciences.  They  confound  Protestant- 
ism with  Roman  and  Greek  Catholicism."  Among  the 
chief  hindrances  among  the  lower  classes,  the  following 
was  given :  "  The  fear  of  offending  the  Government  and 
their  friends,  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  ancestorial 
worship,  simplicity  of  Christian  worship,  dislike  of 
change,  strictness  of  Christian  morals,  sacrifices  and  ob- 
stacles inherent  to  Christian  profession,  f 

God's  providences  are  seldom  seen  so  clearly,  and 
the  timing  of  His  providences  to  the  needs  of  His  king- 
dom have  never  been  more  in  evidence  than  in  the  last 
fifty  years  of  Japanese  social  and  political  history.  For 
example,  in  April,  1876,  Sunday  was  observed  by  gov- 
ernmental decree  as  a  rest  day,  for  the  first  time.    The 

*Otis  Carey,  "Japan  and  Its  Regeneration,"  p.  91. 

t  Otis  Carey,  "  History  of  Christianity  in  Japan,"  Vol.  II,  p.  162. 


THE  COMING  OF  THE  KINGDOM       169 

Government's  foreign  employees,  as  well  as  the  staffs 
at  legations  and  consulates,  refused  to  give  up  their 
seventh  day  of  rest.  Hence  the  Government,  out  of 
necessity,  rather  than  as  an  act  of  courtesy  to  Christian- 
ity, enacted  the  edict.  In  the  early  days  the  burying 
grounds  were  in  the  control  of  Shinto  and  Buddhist 
priests.  As  they  were  then  appointed  by  the  Government 
and  stood  in  the  rank  of  officials,  they  did  not  fail  to 
make  trouble  when  Christians  came  to  bury  their  dead. 
In  1875,  Messrs.  Ogawa  and  Okuno,  two  Christian 
teachers  of  missionaries,  were  arrested  because  they  had 
assisted  in  the  interment  of  a  Christian  at  Ueno  cemetery 
in  Tokyo.  They  were  reprimanded  at  court  and  fined 
$1.50  apiece.  In  1884,  by  an  edict  of  the  Government, 
its  appointment  of  priests  was  abolished.  As  a  conse- 
quence, troublesome  rules  about  registration  and  burial 
likewise  lapsed,  and  the  door  of  religious  liberty  opened 
wider.  It  swung  clear  open  when  at  last,  on  February 
II,  1889,  the  Constitution  was  promulgated,  and  the 
Emperor  gave  to  his  people  religious  liberty.  The  clause 
reads:  "Japanese  subjects  shall  within  limits  not  preju- 
dicial to  peace  and  order  and  not  antagonistic  to 
their  duties  as  subjects,  enjoy  freedom  of  religious 
belief." 

From  the  coming  of  the  missionaries  to  the  granting  of 
the  Constitution  was  just  thirty  years.  What  eventful, 
inspiring,  and  marvellous  years  they  were !  The  Cross 
which  had  been  hated  and  trampled  upon  was  again 
lifted  up,  that  its  healing  beams  might  shine  upon  them 
that  sit  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death.  The  first 
Lord's  Day  after  Perry  had  cast  anchor  in  Japan  his 
crew  sang  across  the  bay : 

"  Before  Jehovah's  awful  Throne, 
Ye  nations,  bow  with  sacred  joy : 
Know  that  the  Lord  is  God  alone : 
He  can  create,  and  He  destroy." 


170  THE  KINGDOM 

That  song  has  never  ceased  to  echo  and  reverberate 
among  Japan's  hills  and  mountains  because  to-day  tens 
of  thousands  have  caught  up  the  refrain : 

"  We  are  His  people,  we  His  care, 

Our  souls,  and  all  our  mortal  frame ; 
What  lasting  honours  shall  we  rear, 
Almighty  Maker^  to  Thy  name  ?  " 

It  is  as  natural  for  human  souls  to  move  into  sympathy 
for  the  Crucified  One  as  for  the  magnetic  needle  to 
swing  northward.  Christianity  has  met  the  needs  of 
men  as  no  other  faith,  and  before  its  onward  sweep  and 
light-flooding  movement,  other  faiths  pale  as  the  candle, 
as  the  firefly's  glimmer  under  the  rising  orb  of  day. 
Japan  has  sought  for  the  world's  treasures  and  found 
them.  She  has  knocked  at  the  temples  of  the  world's 
wisdom  and  the  doors  have  opened  to  her.  She  has 
now  set  her  face  toward  the  light.  The  Light  of  the 
world  will  dispel  all  her  darkness.  All  that  is  worthy 
in  her  people,  her  land,  her  laws,  and  her  customs,  will 
take  on  a  new  glory  just  as  cloud,  hill,  and  valley  dress 
themselves  with  a  changing  splendour  when  the  rays  of 
the  morning  sun  stream  from  over  a  range  to  the 
eastward.  Will  Christ  yet  be  King?  Will  these  millions 
bow  the  knee  and  "  own  Him  Lord  of  all  ? "  As  Lord 
Nelson  replied  when  a  sailor  asked  him  about  the  issue 
of  the  battle  of  the  Nile,  so  the  missionary  replies: 
"  There  is  no  doubt  about  it ;  the  only  question  is  who 
will  live  to  tell  the  story." 


II 

THE   GROWTH    OF   THE    KINGDOM 


I  believe  that  fifty  years  hence  our  Christianity  will  control 
the  minds  high  and  low  and  form  a  standard  of  morals  through- 
out the  whole  country.— I.  Miyagawa. 

I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  Japan  will 
move  forward  with  a  sweep  that  will  surprise  and  gladden  the 
whole  Christian  Church.— Bishop  M.  C.  Harris. 

During  the  last  forty  years  Christian  young  men  and  women 
have  been  fighting  on  the  one  hand  with  the  prepossessions  and 
prejudice  of  the  people,  and  on  the  other  hand  with  Buddhism 
and  Confucianism  with  European  positivism,  pantheism,  ma- 
terialism, agnosticism,  and  American  mammonism. — D.  Ebina, 
the  Japan  Evangelist,  October,  1907,  p.  352. 

It  is  Christianity  that  has  begotten  the  conviction  that  the 
individual  has  a  worth  equalled  by  nothing  in  Heaven  or  on 
earth  except  God,  and  that  if  a  man  loses  that  worth,  then  it 
profits  him  nothing  even  though  he  gained  the  whole  world. — ■ 
D.  Ebina,  Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  320. 

.^  When  I  heard  that  the  Christianity  teaches  the  chastity  of 
men  and  women,  I  was  satisfied  and  desired  to  become  a  Chris- 
tian. If  it  has  done  nothing  more  for  Japan  than  this  it  has 
made  a  great  contribution  to  the  social  reform  of  the  nation. — 
A  Japanese  Christian's  Testimony,  Christian  Movement,  1910,  p. 
299. 

Thou  art  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  Thou  art 
a  conquering  God.  We  claim  for  that  work  upon  earth  and  for 
the  accomplishment  of  Thy  will  the  same  irresistible  power  that 
brought  again  from  the  dead  the  great  Shepherd  of  the  Sheep, 
Our  Lord  and  Redeemer,  Jesus  Christ. — Mrs.  Thomas  S. 
Gladding. 

God  is  working  His  purpose  out,  as  year  succeeds  to  year; 
God  is  working  His  purpose  out  and  the  time  is  drawing  near — ' 
Nearer  and  nearer  draws  the  time,  the  time  that  shall  surely  be, 
When  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  God,  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea. 

From  utmost  East  to  utmost  West,  where'er  man's  foot  hath 

trod. 
By  the  mouth  of  many  messengers  goes  forth  the  word  of  God; 
"  Give  ear  to  Me,  ye  continents,  ye  isles  give  ear  to  Me," 
That  the  earth  may  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  God,  as  the 

waters  cover  the  sea. 

— ^Written  for  the  Lambeth  Conference. 


II 

THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGDOM 

THERE  is  no  arithmetic  or  measuring  rod  for  cal- 
culating the  growth  of  the  Kingdom.  The 
darkest  hour  of  the  church  may  break  into  the 
glory  of  a  noonday  splendour.  The  Cross  was  followed 
by  Pentecost.  Stephen's  martyrdom  was  the  beginning 
of  the  churches  all  over  Palestine.  Nero's  cruelties  gave 
way  to  Constantine's  partialities.  The  selfish  church 
which  for  centuries  forgot  the  pagan  world,  God  has 
stirred  into  action  by  spirit-filled  men,  from  Carey  to 
Mott.  Japan,  once  arrayed  against  the  Cross,  has  given 
way  to  the  will  of  God  who  decreed  that  "  Many  peoples 
and  strong  nations  shall  come  to  seek  Jehovah." 

When  Perry  came  knocking  at  the  gates  of  Japan,  the 
Lord  of  Mito  sent  a  protest  of  ten  items  to  all  the 
Daimios  of  the  land.*  The  second  article  contained  these 
prophetic  words :  "  Notwithstanding  the  strict  interdic- 
tion of  Christianity,  there  are  those  guilty  of  the  heinous 
crime  of  professing  the  doctrines  of  this  evil  sect.  If 
now  America  be  once  admitted  into  our  favour,  the  rise 
of  the  faith  is  a  matter  of  certainty."  If  the  author  of 
those  words  were  living  now,  he  would  think  that  faith 
has  certainly  risen.  More  than  a  thousand  Japanese 
are  preaching  it  and  many  thousands  as  patriotic  as  the 
Lord  of  Mito  "  are  guilty  of  the  heinous  crime  of  pro- 
fessing the  doctrine." 

The  growth  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Japan,  with  all 
its  schools,  churches,  converts,  and  benevolent  institu- 
tions, is  the  more  wonderful  when  we  consider  that  it 
has  all  come  about  in  the  lifetime  of  a  number  of  mis- 

*"Life  of  Japan,"  p.  loi. 

173 


174.  THE  KINGDOM 

sionaries  who  are  still  among  us.  James  H.  Ballagh, 
who  baptized  the  first  convert  and  organized  the  first 
church,  has  passed  through  fifty  years  of  service.  David 
Thompson,  who  baptized  some  of  the  first  converts  and 
was  the  first  pastor  of  the  second  Protestant  church 
organized  in  Japan,  has  celebrated  his  fiftieth  anniver- 
sary. More  interesting  than  a  talk  with  a  war  veteran  or 
a  traveller  from  some  distant  or  unexplored  land  is  an 
hour  spent  with  these  men  or  with  a  Greene,  a  Miller, 
a  Correll,  a  Miss  Crosby,  a  Miss  Kidder,  or  some  wife 
who  yet  lingers  near  the  grave  of  her  fallen  brave  who 
was  sure  of  our  day  of  victory  even  when  assassins  flour- 
ished their  knives  and  missionaries  moved  about  under 
armed  escorts. 

An  encouraging  sign  which  has  contributed  to  the 
growth  of  the  faith  is  the  change  of  sentiment  toward 
Christianity.  The  condemnation  of  it,  which  was  once 
so  universal,  remains  mainly  among  those  who  have  not 
had  opportunity  to  know  its  meanings  or  its  fruits. 
Baron  Kato,  an  enemy  of  Christianity,  said :  "  Last  year, 
after  the  burning  of  the  Yoshiwara  quarters  in  Tokyo, 
the  Christians  stirred  up  wide  public  discussion  of  the 
abolition  of  licensed  prostitution.  I  detest  Christianity 
but  I  heartily  approve  the  agitation  of  this  abolition 
question.  Last  year,  when  Christian  believers  and 
Christian  magazines  were  vehemently  agitating  the  ques- 
tion, why  was  it  that  the  educators  who  were  connected 
with  the  girls'  school,  and  who  were  continually  talking 
about  chastity,  showed  the  utmost  indifference  ?  "  * 

The  Christian  cause  has  won  favour  because  of  the 
high  moral  standing  given  the  Christian  and  his  faith,  A 
prominent  writer  said  in  a  newspaper  that  nine-tenths  of 
the  Buddhist  priests  were  immoral.  Whether  so  or  not, 
there  is  no  denying  the  fact  that  the  Christian  minister 
is  esteemed  morally  far  above  the  ordinary  priest.  Ac- 
cording to  newspaper  report,  a  thief  who  had  stolen 

*  Quoted  from  Naigai  Kyoiku  Hyoron,  February  12,  1912,  p.  14. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGDOM      175 

some  bonds  became  penitent  after  the  Emperor's  death. 
To  insure  the  safe  return  of  the  bonds,  he  broke  into 
the  kitchen  of  a  Christian  preacher's  house  and  left  them 
on  the  floor.  Some  poHcemen  who  were  searching  the 
satchel  of  a  man  in  a  hotel,  for  stolen  articles,  gave  it 
up  when  they  ran  across  a  New  Testament.  After  the 
great  fire  in  Osaka,  in  1912,  the  mayor,  who  was  not 
a  Christian,  selected  Christians,  who  went  out  two  by 
two  to  seek  out  the  needy  and  to  cause  funds  to  be  dis- 
tributed for  their  relief. 

The  good  works,  the  benevolence,  the  deeds  of  kind- 
ness done  in  Christ's  name  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  Empire  were  something  new  to  Japan. 
Hospitals,  rescue-homes  for  fallen  women,  leper  asylums, 
orphanages,  homes  for  ex-prisoners,  charity  schools  and 
kindergartens,  as  well  as  schools  for  girls,  had  their 
beginnings  with  Christian  leaders,  who  set  the  pace, 
furnished  the  models,  and  stimulated  both  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  ancient  religion  into  action.  If  the  reader 
will  read  Appendix  "  G  "  of  this  book,  he  will  learn  that 
the  Japanese  Government  entertains  more  than  a  good 
opinion  of  many  of  these  Christian  institutions. 

One  of  the  missionaries  to  whom  Japan  has  acknowl- 
edged its  debt  of  gratitude  is  Dr.  John  C.  Berry,  who 
started  the  first  nurses'  school  at  Kyoto.* 

The  spread  of  the  English  language  and  Japan's  inti- 
mate relation  with  English-speaking  people  have  been 
helpful   factors   in  Japan's   Christianization.     Notwith- 

*  It  was  Dr.  Berry's  report,  after  visiting  the  prisoners  of 
Japan,  that  led  to  prison  reformation  all  over  the  Empire.  The 
Japanese  ambassador,  Viscount  S.  Chinda,  who  recently  presented 
him  with  an  Imperial  Decoration,  said :  "  In  recognition  of  your 
eminent  and  distinguished  services  during  your  sojourn  in 
Japan,  looking  to  the  promotion  of  her  material  well-being, 
notably  your  signal  contribution  towards  the  improvement  of 
medical  and  sanitary  organizations,  and  of  the  system  of  prisons 
in  which  you  have  taken  keen  and  kindly  interest  to  the  grateful 
tnemory  of  the  Japanese  people." 


176  THE  KINGDOM 

standing  the  agnostic  element  in  English  literature,  all 
who  read  it  are  bound  to  be  impressed  with  the  influence 
of  Jesus  and  its  vocabulary  of  things  distinctly  Chris- 
tian. About  one-third  of  all  Japanese  pastors  can  read 
English  books.  There  are  about  twenty-five  Christian 
teachers  employed  in  the  governmental  schools  who 
teach  through  the  English  language,  and  an  addition 
of  twenty-three  teachers  procured  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  who  teach  English,  solely,  and  out  of 
school  hours  are  free  to  teach  and  spread  Christianity 
at  pleasure. 

Among  the  converts  are  quite  a  few  of  the  educated 
and  respectable  part  of  the  community.  There  are  many 
officials  and  students.  Most  of  them  are  now  young,  but 
the  day  will  come  when,  as  heads  of  families,  or  holding 
positions  of  influence  and  responsibility,  they  will  be 
able  to  do  manifold  more  than  now.  A  computation 
based  on  the  aggregate  membership  of  a  certain  church 
in  Tokyo  shows  that  there  are  224  officials,  153  teachers, 
94  doctors,  442  merchants,  and  582  students,  totaling 
1,495  against  a  balance  of  1,826  of  miscellaneous  or  un- 
known occupations.  As  a  whole,  the  agricultural,  indus- 
trial, and  fisher  classes  have  scarcely  been  touched;  but 
even  so,  the  potential  force  and  leavening  power  of  the 
church  in  Japan  is  far  greater  than  it  would  be  if  the 
present  members  consisted  solely  of  farmers,  fishers,  and 
factory  or  day  labourers. 

The  first  twenty-five  years  of  mission  work  in  Japan 
was  given  to  seed-sowing,  the  winning  of  converts,  and 
the  establishing  of  schools.  The  last  twenty-five  years 
has  had  no  abatement  of  Gospel  preaching,  but  the  rapid 
growth  in  converts  has  not  been  so  marked  as  during 
the  first  twenty-five  years.  But  there  has  been  a  very 
solid  growth,  characterized  by  better  organization,  better 
methods,  better  helps,  and  an  encouraging  spirit  of  Chris- 
tian unity.  There  has  been  a  marked  growth  in  the  spirit 
of  independence  and  benevolence  which  has  resulted  in 


THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGDOM      177 

many  healthy  churches  which  are  self-governing  and 
wholly  self-supporting. 

The  activity  of  these  Japanese  churches  and  their 
leaders  is  a  cause  for  thanksgiving.  In  the  chapter, 
"  Christian  Forces  at  Work,"  is  given  a  brief  mention  of 
many  organizations  organized  within  the  last  ten  years, 
in  which  Japanese  Christians  take  the  lead.  The  tem- 
perance society  is  a  notable  example;  the  Japan  Sunday 
School  Association  is  another  illustration  of  the  earnest- 
ness and  wisdom  of  Japanese  who  are  eager  to  toil  for 
every  cause  that  will  please  their  Lord  and  establish 
His  kingdom. 

In  considerating  statistics,  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  in  mission  lands  there  are  large  numbers  who,  like 
Nicodemus,  are  friendly  to  Jesus  but  non-committal. 
Among  their  number  are  thousands  who  have  attended 
Sunday  Schools  and  educational  institutions  when 
young.  Many  others  there  are  who  can  never  forget 
the  kindness  shown  them  when  they  were  inmates  of  a 
Christian  orphanage,  hospital,  or  a  charity  school.  There 
are  others  who,  in  their  travels  abroad,  have  come  into 
touch  with  Christian  homes,  and  still  others  who  in  one 
way  or  another  have  come  into  close  contact  with  the 
missionaries.  I  was  riding  on  the  train  the  other  day 
with  a  young  man  whom  I  had  taught  in  an  English 
Bible  class  at  the  Oriental  College.  As  it  had  been  some 
years  since  I  had  seen  him,  I  asked  him  if  he  had  become 
a  Christian.  He  said,  "  No,  but  I  have  a  Christian  wife, 
and  though  I  am  not  a  Christian  myself,  I  want  you  to 
know  that  no  one  can  come  into  close  touch  with  a 
missionary,  as  I  have,  and  not  be  a  different  person 
afterwards." 

Ernest  W.  Clement  said :  "  The  teaching  of  Christian- 
ity has  already  caused  considerable  improvement  in  the 
way  of  elevating  marriage  from  its  low  standard  to  a 
holy  rite."  *    The  Japanese  themselves,  in  giving  a  result 

♦  "  Handbook  of  Modern  Japan,"  p.  6i. 


178  THE  KINGDOM 

of  Christian  work  in  Japan,  mention  the  emancipation 
of  women  as  one  of  the  most  striking  changes.  A  Chris- 
tian wife  usually  walks  beside  her  Christian  husband, 
and  in  the  Christian  home  the  wife  has  freedom  of 
action  and  affectionate  consideration  from  her  husband 
and  her  children. 

A  day  of  rest  on  Sunday  is  gradually  gaining  a  hold 
in  Japan.  In  this  regard  the  church  has  had  to  array 
herself  against  ancient  custom,  which  is  still  strongly 
supported  from  selfish  and  economic  considerations.  It 
is  no  small  item  in  counting  the  growth  of  the  kingdom 
that  there  are  over  one  thousand  places  in  the  strategic 
centres  of  Japan  where  every  Lord's  Day  little  bands 
gather  for  prayer^  preaching,  and  singing  the  songs  of 
Zion,  whose  sweet  and  assuring  refrains  go  on  rever- 
berating into  an  ever  widening  circle  of  hearts.  It  will 
be  an  immense  advantage  for  the  church  when  a  seventh 
day  of  rest  is  quite  universally  observed  in  Japan. 

The  tourist  who  passes  through  the  land  will  not  be 
impressed  with  the  number  of  church  buildings  nor  their 
size,  having  come  from  a  land  of  cathedrals  and  newly 
built  churches  of  which  many  single  edifices  cost  more 
than  the  total  valuation  of  the  churches  and  preaching 
halls  of  this  land.  And  yet,  any  one  who  takes  the  pains 
to  locate  the  buildings  dedicated  to  Christ  in  all  larger 
cities,  will  be  surprised  at  their  number,  and  if  he  is 
interested  in  the  Cross,  he  will  be  greatly  encouraged. 
The  growth  in  the  number  of  church  buildings  and  the 
increased  outlay  for  them  contributed  from  Japanese 
sources  is  a  healthful  sign. 

The  first  Christian  newspaper,  started  by  O.  H.  Gu- 
lick,  ®f  the  American  Board,  was  issued  December  29, 
1875.  The  next  paper,  The  Glad  Tidings,  was  started 
by  Miss  McNeal,  of  the  Woman's  Union  Mission  Board. 
Mrs.  E.  R.  Miller,  the  next  editor,  improved  it  with  a 
supplement  called  "  Little  Tidings."  Both  are  still  cir- 
culated, the  issues  running  to  180,000  copies  each  year. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  THE  KINGDOM      179 

From  these  beginnings,  Christian  printing  plants  and 
Christian  bookstores  have  been  established.  Christian 
editors  are  employed  on  a  number  of  daily  papers.  Ex- 
cluding Sunday  School  periodicals,  seventy-four  dis- 
tinctly Christian  periodicals  are  published  in  Japanese 
and  eleven  in  English.  Outside  of  the  books  issued  from 
Christian  sources,  the  reading  public  has  an  interest  in 
the  Cross  which  shrewd  publishers  do  not  disregard.  At 
least  thirty  books  on  Christian  fiction  have  been  recently 
published.  Some  of  these  books  have  been  quite  popular 
and  have  been  reproduced  on  the  stage.  "  Nomiko  "  is 
one  that  has  been  translated  into  English. 

Within  a  Buddhist  cemetery  in  Yokohama,  on  a  mossy 
brown  stone,  are  written  the  words, 

"  If  I  love  Him,  when  I  die 
He  will  take  me  home  on  high." 

They  were  the  last  words  of  a  Mrs.  Shimoka,  a  saint 
who  passed  away  many  years  ago,  singing  the  words  of 
the  second  Christian  song  that  had  been  translated.  In- 
cluding the  sales  of  millions  of  Bibles  and  several  hun- 
dred thousand  hymn  books.  Christian  literature  has  made 
a  great  advance  over  the  day  when  Dr.  Martin's  "  Chris- 
tian Evidences  "  and  the  New  Testament  in  Chinese  or 
Dutch  about  exhausted  the  list  that  a  Japanese  could 
read. 

The  indications  are  that  the  next  ten  years  will  see 
a  growth  of  Christianity  in  Japan  hitherto  unequalled, 
possibly  unequalled  anywhere  in  the  world.  And  what 
if  the  very  opposite  should  be  the  result — shall  we  de- 
spair? No,  not  in  the  least.  Sooner  or  later,  the  Cross 
will  win  its  way  and  "  Every  tongue  shall  confess."  The 
inextinguishable,  victorious  elements  of  the  Cross  have 
been  indelibly  impressed  upon  my  mind  because  I  lived 
for  seven  years  at  'j2  Myogadami  Machi,  Tokyo.  Tradi- 
tion says  that  the  lot  was  the  site  of  a  prison  where 


180  THE  KINGDOM 

Catholic  martyrs  were  confined  before  their  execution 
on  the  opposite  hill,  which  is  called  to  this  day,  "  Chris- 
tian Zaka,"  or  "  Christian  Hill."  Near  the  foot  of  the 
hill,  facing  it,  is  a  rough  gravestone  which  marks  the 
grave  of  the  servant  of  a  foreign  priest.  This  priest  was 
imprisoned  for  many  years,  and  although  he  died  a 
natural  death  in  his  prison  near  the  gravestone,  thousands 
of  Japanese  and  thousands  of  his  companions  gained  a 
martyr's  crown.  Just  opposite  the  grave  there  now 
stands  a  Student  Hostel  erected  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and 
not  far  away  are  churches  and  Sunday  Schools  whose 
presence  demonstrate  the  persistence  of  our  faith  and 
are  prophetic  of  the  day  when  the  kingdom  shall  have 
grown  to  earth  wide  pre  portions. 


Ill 

THE   WINNING  OF   SOULS 


The  work  of  love,  like  a  circle,  begins  anywhere  and  ends 
nowhere. 

Even  so  I  say  unto  you  that  there  is  joy  in  the  presence  of 
the  angels  of  God  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth. — Luke  xv,  id. 
Men  who  work  can  only  work  for  men, 
And,  not  to  work  in  vain,  must  comprehend 
Humanity,  and  so  work  humanly, 
And  raise  men's  bodies  still  by  raising  souls, 
As  God  did  first. 

— E.  B.  Browning. 

Where'er  a  single  slave  does  pine, 
Where'er  one  man  can  help  another. 
Thank  God  for  such  a  birthright,  brother. 
That  spot  of  earth  is  thine  and  mine; 
There  is  the  true  man's  birthplace  grand, 
His  is  a  worldwide  fatherland! 

There  are  loyal  hearts  and  spirits  brave, 

There  are  souls  that  are  pure  and  true, 
Then  give  to  the  world  the  best  you  have 

And  the  best  shall  come  back  to  you. 
Give  love,  and  love  to  your  heart  will  flow — 

A  strength  in  your  utmost  need ; 
Have  faith,  and  a  score  of  hearts  will  show 

Their  faith  in  your  word  and  deed. 

— M.  S.  Bridges. 

Whatever  be  its  creed — whatever  be  its  sect — from  whatever 
segment  of  the  globe  its  visions  arise.  Virtue  is  God's  empire, 
and  from  this  throne  of  thrones  He  will  defend  it.  Though 
cast  into  the  distant  earth,  and  struggling  on  the  dim  arena  of 
the  human  heart,  all  things  above  are  spectators  of  its  conflict  or 
enlisted  in  its  cause.  The  angels  have  their  charge  over  it — 
the  banners  of  archangels  are  on  its  side,  and  from  sphere  to 
sphere,  through  the  illimitable  ether  and  round  the  impenetrable 
darkness  at  the  feet  of  God,  its  triumph  is  hymned  by  harps 
which  are  strung  to  the  glories  of  the  Creator! — Bulwer. 


Ill 

THE  WINNING  OF  SOULS 

IT  is  not  easy  for  one  at  home  to  get  a  conception 
of  the  situation  that  confronts  the  missionary  in 
his  efforts  to  win  souls  for  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Some  Americans  take  it  for  granted  that  Japan  is  already 
fairly  Christianized,  while  others  believe  that  the  masses 
are  treading  upon  one  another  to  hear  the  Gospel. 
Neither  case  is  true.  The  multitudes  in  Japan  are  intel- 
ligent and  zealous  adherents  to  idolatry.  If  we  would 
seek  for  the  haunts  of  large  crowds,  we  must  go  to 
temple  compounds  or  their  approaches.  At  home,  eighty 
per  cent  of  the  converts  are  from  those  who  have  been 
taught  in  Sunday  Schools.  Conversion,  especially  during 
revivals,  is  largely  a  matter  of  quickening  and  persuasion. 
In  Japan  but  occasionally  do  we  meet  one  who  has  had 
a  Christian  father  or  mother. 

Like  a  pioneer  ranger,  the  missionary  must  go  to  vir- 
gin forests,  fell  the  logs,  split  them,  and  prepare  by 
hand  the  shingles,  the  flooring,  the  siding  that  shall  enter 
God's  growing  and  holy  temple.  The  converts  who  join 
the  churches  do  not  enter  them  until  they  have  been 
thoroughly  taught  and  questioned  as  to  their  faith.  The 
process  may  take  days,  weeks,  or  months,  according  to 
the  previous  knowledge  of  the  inquirer.  A  young  student 
who  had  been  studying  the  New  Testament  and  cate- 
chism for  three  months  asked  for  baptism.  He  happened 
to  ask  the  missionary,  "  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me  that 
all  this  that  you  have  been  teaching  me  is  true  ? "  Six 
months  later  he  came  to  believe  and  was  baptized.  A 
few  missionaries  approve  of  an  immediate  decision  on 
first  hearing  the  Gospel ;  such,  however,  is  the  exception. 

183 


184  THE  KINGDOM 

During  a  protracted  effort,  it  is  usual  to  ask  those  who 
have  any  interest  in  Christianity,  who  want  to  investi- 
gate, or  become  Christians,  to  raise  their  hands  or  sign 
cards  with  their  names  and  addresses.  These  inquirers 
are  then  given  Hterature,  are  called  upon,  and  gathered 
into  classes  for  regular  instruction. 

In  Japan,  by  far  the  larger  number  in  the  churches 
are  being  won  by  the  personal  contact  of  Japanese  evan- 
gelists, Bible  women,  missionaries,  or  by  the  work  of 
individuals,  as  Andrew  won  Peter.  Some  concrete  in- 
stances will  illustrate  the  process  better  than  abstracts 
or  general  references. 

One  winter,  during  the  holidays,  a  missionary  family 
had  gone  to  Atami  for  rest.  This  beautiful  place  is  well 
protected  by  mountains  and  balmy  breezes  from  the  black 
current  of  the  Pacific  make  it  agreeably  warm  the  year 
round.  One  day  while  they  were  walking  along  the 
road  which  skirts  the  sea,  they  met  a  young  man  to 
whom  they  were  immediately  drawn.  They  exchanged 
cards  and  invited  him  to  their  home  and  church  in 
Tokyo.  A  couple  of  months  later  he  became  a  Christian. 
Two  years  afterwards  he  was  asked  to  go  into  details  and 
tell  just  how  it  was  that  his  interest  in  Christ  and  the 
Church  was  aroused.  He  said  that  three  years  before 
he  had  read  the  life  of  General  Gordon  and  was  much 
impressed  with  his  saintly  life.  It  was  some  time  later 
that  he  met  the  missionaries  at  the  beach,  and  was  much 
pleased  with  the  kindly  treatment  given  him.  He  coupled 
what  he  had  read  of  Christ's  life^  reproduced  in  the  life 
of  General  Gordon,  with  what  he  had  seen  of  Christ's 
influence  in  the  life  of  a  missionary,  and  he  concluded 
that  Jesus,  to  have  exerted  such  a  power,  must  have 
been  more  than  a  man,  and  at  least  the  Gospels  were 
worthy  of  investigation.  Then  he  read,  "  believed,  and 
obeyed."  The  young  man  in  question  is  a  graduate  of 
the  Imperial  University,  and  for  years  was  superin- 
tendent of  a  Bible  School.     It  would  be  hard  to  find 


THE  WINNING  OF  SOULS  185 

in  any  land  a  sweeter  spirit,  a  more  conscientious  heart, 
and  a  more  sacrificing  life. 

One  day,  at  my  English  Bible  class,  at  a  college  near 
my  home,  I  had  taken  for  my  study  the  model  prayer 
which  Jesus  taught  His  disciples.*  About  twenty 
students  were  present;  a  couple  were  Christians  and  the 
remainder  were  Buddhists  of  no  faith  in  particular.  I 
urged  upon  them  the  need  of  prayer,  claiming  that  it 
was  the  natural  function  of  every  heart  and  that  they 
ought  to  pray  the  best  prayer  they  knew  to  the  Father 
of  Spirits  who  watches  over  us  all.  Apparently  I  had 
made  no  impression,  and  I  returned  that  rainy  night 
somewhat  depressed.  That  same  evening  five  of  the 
young  men  came  to  my  home  and  expressed  a  wish  that 
they  might  know  more  of  Jesus,  and  an  hour  was  set  for 
them  to  come  weekly  for  study  and  instruction.  The 
result  was  that  in  less  than  two  months  the  five  were 
received  into  the  Church. 

One  summer's  day,  about  six  miles  from  home,  I  was 
caught  in  the  mountains  by  a  violent  thunder-storm. 
I  was  thoroughly  drenched  to  the  skin.  The  mountain 
torrents  arose  rapidly,  and  fearing,  too,  that  dusk  would 
fall  before  I  could  return  to  my  home,  I  concluded  to 
stop  at  the  first  house  which  would  give  me  shelter. 
After  a  tramp  of  a  mile  or  more,  I  found  a  straw-roofed 
cottage  which  was  occupied  by  a  farmer  and  his  wife,  who 
seemed  to  be  leading  an  easy  life  away  in  the  heart  of 
the  mountains.     It  took  considerable  persuasion  to  get 

*  The  manuscript  for  this  chapter  was  completed  eighteen 
months  before  it  was  put  into  typewritten  form,  for  the  reason 
that  the  author,  by  many  visits  to  missionary  friends,  made 
every  effort  to  secure  suitable  illustrations,  that  he  might  exclude 
his  own  experiences.  These  conversations  with  missionary 
friends  have  convinced  him  that  the  actual  tale  of  missions  and 
the  most  wonderful  instances  of  Christ's  power  and  love  work- 
ing through  His  truth,  can  never  be  told  in  a  book,  for  the 
reason  that  few  missionaries  are  willing  to  tell,  or  have  pub- 
lished, what  God  has  wrought  through  them. 


186  THE  KINGDOM 

them  to  admit  me  as  a  guest,  chiefly  because  they  feared 
I  would  not  be  made  comfortable  in  their  humble  quar- 
ters. At  last  I  prevailed  upon  them,  and  right  royally 
did  they  care  for  me.  The  storm  continued  for  two 
days  and  I  remained  a  grateful  prisoner.  Near  their 
home  was  a  small  stream  which  had  swollen  into  a 
raging  flood.  It  tore  down  the  gorge  at  no  gentle  rate. 
Now  and  then  a  massive  boulder  would  plunge  down  to 
lower  levels,  and  bounding  down  with  companion 
boulders,  the  canyon  echoed  and  re-echoed  like  some 
fabulous  game  of  tenpins  played  by  sprites  of  the  storm. 

The  first  night  in  the  home  I  learned  much  of  its 
family  history.  The  wife  was  born  from  a  family  which 
had  seen  prosperous  days  during  the  time  of  the  sho- 
gunate,  and  she  was  fairly  educated.  Years  before,  a 
New  Testament  had  fallen  into  her  possession,  and  this 
she  had  read  until  she  had  become  quite  familiar  with 
the  Gospel  story.  At  times  she  used  the  Lord's  Prayer 
when  her  soul  sought  rest  upon  the  bosom  of  the  Father 
the  New  Testament  portrayed.  It  was  easy  to  urge  upon 
her  the  call  of  the  Master.  On  the  third  day  the  storm 
had  ceased,  the  sun  shone  brightly,  and  the  mountain 
stream  had  become  sane  again.  Upon  the  woman's  con- 
fession of  faith,  I  had  my  reward  for  the  storm's  delay 
by  baptizing  her  "  into  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 

If  Japan  were  an  ill-governed  country,  if  property 
and  life  were  insecure,  if  there  were  no  written  tongue, 
if  pest  ran  riot  and  unsanitary  conditions  prevailed,  if 
ignorance  and  violence  reigned,  the  missionary  would  be 
welcomed  as  the  superior  man.  Apart  from  his  mes- 
sage through  orphanage,  hospital,  or  printing  press,  he 
would  make  many  debtors  who  would  abandon  prejudice 
and  turn  a  willing  ear  to  his  preaching.  However,  none 
of  the  above-named  social  or  governmental  conditions 
obtain  in  Japan.  The  missionary  brings  nothing  but 
himself  and  his  home.     He  brings  nothing  but  his  per- 


THE  WINNING  OF  SOULS  187 

sonality,  his  moral  life,  and  the  story  about  Jesus.  I  am 
glad  that  it  is  so.  The  progress  may  be  slower  but  it 
will  be  more  substantial.  The  usual  adjuncts  of  mis- 
sionary work  are  less  in  Japan  than  in  other  fields,  but 
for  this  very  reason  the  missionary  can  intensify,  can 
bring  the  Gospel  in  its  fulness  and  in  its  rawness  to 
bear  upon  the  human  heart. 

I  was  told  that  there  is  a  Baptist  minister  preaching 
to-day  who  was  won  to  faith  by  the  joint  influence  of 
a  Japanese  minister's  sermon  on  "  God  is  Love  "  and  a 
sermon  by  John  H.  DeForest  on  "  Sacrifice,"  in  which 
he  mentioned  Horace  T.  Pitkin's  death  at  Paotingfu, 
who  with  nine  other  missionaries  and  four  little  children 
were  slain  by  the  Boxers.* 

Not  every  effort  is  attended  by  success.  A  young  law 
student  had  been  coming  to  my  home  off  and  on  for  a 
year.  We  spent  many  hours  together  over  the  Bible. 
I  called  in  Japanese  friends  who  are  expert  in  soul- 
winning;  still  he  remained  an  unbeliever.  Another 
young  man  I  have  known  for  years  and  love  and  trust 
him  like  a  brother.  We  correspond  and  treat  each  other 
as  if  of  one  blood  or  kin.  More  than  one  has  hoped 
and  prayed  and  waited  for  his  conversion.  Though 
friendly  to  the  Church,  as  yet,  he  is  a  stranger  to  its 
blessings. 

I  know  of  a  lady  who  lives  in  an  elegant  home.  She 
has  every  material  comfort,  yet  she  is  far  from  happy. 
She  had  attended  special  meetings  for  women,  had 
studied  her  Testament,  and  thus  came  to  believe  on  Jesus 
and  asked  for  baptism.  But  her  husband,  a  radical  op- 
ponent of  Christianity,  said  he  would  divorce  her,  take 

*  When  Pitkin's  body  was  found,  "  the  hands  were  found  not 
bound  but  uplifted  as  in  prayer.  And  one  of  his  last  messages 
was  the  word  home  to  America  about  his  little  boy  praying 
that  when  he  was  grown  he  could  come  back  to  China  and  take 
his  father's  place."— Robert  E.  Speer,  "  Young  Men  Who  Over- 
came," p.  56. 


188  THE  KINGDOM 

her  children,  drive  her  from  home,  if  she  obeyed  Christ. 
The  poor  woman  decided  to  stay  with  her  children  and 
give  up  the  Church,  but  she  said  to  a  friend,  in  speaking 
of  her  husband,  "  I  praise  God  that  he  cannot  take  my 
faith  from  me." 

One  young  man  who  spent  an  evening  in  my  home 
never  called  again.  Our  conversation  drifted  to  the  sub- 
ject of  sin.  I  said  that  the  Bible  teaches  that  all  men 
are  sinners.  He  became  indignant  at  once  and  informed 
me  that  he  was  not  a  sinner.  Try  as  I  would,  I  could 
neither  explain  nor  allay  his  resentment,  and  he  went 
away  with  the  boast  that  he  was  not  as  other  men  were. 

The  Japanese  idea  of  God  is  different  from  our  belief 
in  the  Father  who  made  the  world,  yet  it  is  higher  and 
greater  than  the  universe  which  He  created  and  main- 
tains. Pantheism  is  the  best  term  to  describe  their  con- 
ception of  deity.  Their  gods  and  goddesses  have  the 
same  freaks  and  passions  as  are  found  in  Roman  mythol- 
ogy. It  was  only  by  a  long  process  that  the  descendants 
of  Abraham  came  to  grasp  the  true  conception  of  God. 
It  will  be  the  work  and  education  of  many  years  before 
the  Japanese  nation  comes  to  a  general  belief  in  one 
holy  and  all-compassionate  God  who  hates  sin,  yet  loved 
the  sinner  unto  the  tragedy  of  the  crucifixion. 

One  night  I  was  teaching  a  small  class  of  inquirers  the 
ninth  chapter  of  John.  They  smiled  when  I  told  them 
it  was  true.  Whereupon  I  pointed  them  to  John  viii,  46, 
and  Mark  xiv,  9,  and  asserted  that  the  sinlessness  of 
Jesus  and  the  Gospel's  proclamation  according  to  the 
prophecy  of  Jesus,  were  things  that  they  could  see  and 
that  they  could  not  question.  They  seemed  deeply  im- 
pressed and  had  nothing  further  to  say.  A  student  of 
a  Buddhist  college,  who  was  first  to  break  the  silence, 
which  he  did  by  asking  me  to  locate  Paradise.  I  told 
him  I  could  not  do  it  to  his  satisfaction,  but  if  he  would 
locate  his  own  soul,  or  our  own  solar  system,  I  would 
make  the  effort.     He  laughed,  and  then  asked,  if  in 


THE  WINNING  OF  SOULS  189 

turning  the  other  cheek  a  Christian  would  not  be 
doubling  the  sin  of  the  sinner.  I  told  him  even  a  dog 
would  have  mercy  upon  his  meek  opponent,  and  that 
Christ  expected  more  of  the  ordinary  knocker  than  from 
the  dog. 

I  had  a  unique  argument  with  a  student  who  seemed 
hungry  for  spiritual  food  yet  was  entangled  in  a  maze 
of  mental  absurdities.  Hoping  to  find  some  ground  in 
common  upon  which  we  could  take  our  stand,  I  suggested 
that  we  could  not  doubt  our  own  personalities.  He 
suavely  said  he  doubted  that  he  or  I  had  any  existence. 
I  warmed  up  a  little  and  brought  forward  my  reserves. 
*'  Well,  grant  that  you  and  I  are  non-existing,  you  cer- 
tainly believe  in  mathematical  fact.  For  example,  two 
and  two  are  four."  He  said  that  two  and  two  could  just 
as  well  be  five  as  four,  they  did  not  necessarily  equal 
four.  In  my  own  weak  heart  I  had  to  struggle  against 
the  desire  to  call  him  a  fool.  Through  grace  I  called 
him  a  prince,  and  said  if  he  would  study  Christ's  life, 
and  give  His  commandments  a  fair  test  by  keeping  them, 
he  would  come  to  know  the  doctrine. 


IV 


ILLUSTRATIONS   OF   CHRISTIAN 
FIDELITY 


They  conquer  who  believe  they  can. 

— Virgil. 

God  is  no  respecter  of  persons :  but  in  every  nation  he  that 
feareth  Him  and  worketh  righteousness  is  acceptable  to  Him. — 
Acts  x,  34,  35. 

I  returned  and  saw  under  the  sun  that  the  race  is  not  to  the 
swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the  strong,  neither  yet  bread  to  the  wise, 
nor  yet  riches  to  men  of  understanding,  nor  yet  favour  to  men 
of  skill;  but  time  and  chance  happeneth  to  them  all.— Eccle- 

SIASTES  ix,  II. 

Religion  is  the  one  means  whereby  a  man  can  be  changed 
from  bad  to  good.  Charity  can  change  him  from  poor  to  rich; 
philanthropy  can  change  him  from  hungry  to  filled;  county 
councils  and  local  rates  can  change  him  from  homeless  to 
housed ;  but  nothing  except  religion  can  change  him  from  bad 
to  good.  Let  society  try  to  see  if  they  can  do  it. — Harold 
Begbie,  "The  Ordinary  Man  and  the  Extraordinary  Thing," 
p.  no. 

One  ship  drives  East,  another  drives  West 

While  the  selfsame  breezes  blow ; 
'Tis  the  set  of  the  sails,  and  not  the  gales. 

That  bids  them  where  to  go. 

Like  the  winds  of  the  air  are  the  wars  of  the  fates. 

As  we  journey  along  through  Life ; 
'Tis  the  set  of  the  soul  that  decides  the  goal. 

And  not  the  storm  or  the  strife. 

— Peloubet's  "  Select  Notes,"  1912. 

In  almost  any  subject  your  passion  for  the  subject  will  save 
you.  H  you  only  care  enough  for  the  result,  you  will  almost 
certainly  attain  it.  If  you  wish  to  be  rich,  you  will  be  rich; 
if  you  wish  to  be  learned,  you  will  be  learned ;  if  you  wish  to 
be  good,  you  will  be  good,  only  you  must,  then,  really  wish  these 
things,  and  wish  them  with  exclusiveness  and  not  wish  at  the 
same  time  a  hundred  other  incompatible  things  just  as  strongly. 
— William  James,  "Talks  on  Psychology  and  Life's  Ideals," 
p.  137- 


IV 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  CHRISTIAN  FIDELITY 

"  1  "XO  they  stick?"  is  a  question  often  asked  con- 
I  1  cerning  the  converts  on  the  field.  Of  course 
J--^  they  stick.  Such  a  question  is  really  an  im- 
peachment of  the  Gospel  and  the  human  heart,  where 
the  good  seed  is  sown.  The  general  testimony  is  that 
the  converts  are  as  faithful  as  they  are  in  the  home 
land  and  more  so  when  the  adverse  circumstances  are 
fully  taken  into  consideration.  There  are  many  lapses 
among  converts  who  are  hastily  received  into  the  Church. 
Lapses  are  few  where  time  is  taken  to  teach  the  in- 
quirers, where  the  sincerity  and  reality  of  the  faith  is 
put  to  test.  One  missionary  reported  that  in  the  last 
few  years  he  has  had  a  hundred  and  five  souls  as  the 
reward  of  his  labours.  Not  one  has  fallen  away.  One 
of  the  number  fell  into  sin,  but  repented  and  was  restored. 
In  the  United  States,  about  one  in  three  is  a  pro- 
fessed believer  in  Christ.  In  Japan  there  is  one  Prot- 
estant believer  (full  church  member)  to  seven  hundred 
and  twenty-three  of  the  population.  The  great  majority, 
therefore,  is  non-Christian,  and  a  very  considerable  num- 
ber pronounced  anti-Christian.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing 
to  stand  alone.  It  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  move  against 
a  crowd.  Buddhism  is  not  dead.  Millions  in  Japan 
to-day  look  to  it  as  the  only  true  religion.  Alienation, 
persecution,  or  disinheritance  is  almost  sure  to  be  the 
lot  of  one  who  enters  the  Church  from  a  devout  Bud- 
dhist family. 

I  know  a  seamstress  who,  in  passing  a  church  was 
attracted  by  the  singing.  She  became  interested  from 
that  time  on  and  finally  became  a  Christian.    Her  mother 

193 


194  THE  KINGDOM 

scolded  her,  shut  her  in  her  room,  withheld  her  food, 
and  finally  became  sick  herself  from  worry  and  vexation 
when  her  daughter  jumped  out  of  the  window  and  at- 
tended the  church.  In  another  family,  the  husband  was 
a  Christian  and  the  wife  an  intense  Buddhist.  On  the 
death  of  their  child  they  had  both  a  Christian  and  a 
Buddhistic  funeral.  The  mother's  heart  was  so  touched 
by  the  Christian  songs  and  assurances  of  immortality  that 
she  was  won  over  to  her  husband's  faith.  Churches  and 
preaching  places  are  not  as  numerous  in  Japan  as  in 
Christian  lands.  There  is  not  the  freedom  for  individual 
action  that  there  is  where  Christ  reigns.  If  a  Christian 
wife  is  forbidden  by  her  unbelieving  husband  to  attend 
church,  she  must  obey  her  husband.  Though  the  hus- 
band be  willing,  if  the  mother-in-law  forbids,  she  gen- 
erally obeys  her  mother-in-law.  The  parents'  rule  over 
the  child  is  supreme,  even  though  the  latter  may  have  a 
family  of  his  own.  It  takes  great  faith  and  an  heroic 
heart  to  break  from  the  family  custom  and  remain  an 
alien  to  its  counsel,  its  protection,  and  its  affections. 

Some  years  ago  a  young  Buddhist  priest  was  baptized. 
When  he  made  it  known,  it  made  a  furor  among  his  rela- 
tives. He  had  been  chosen  to  succeed  his  priest  uncle 
in  the  superintendence  of  several  temples,  and  to  inherit 
a  considerable  sum  of  money.  A  family  council  was 
called.  Father,  uncle,  and  elder  brother  all  urged  him 
to  give  up  Christ  and  the  Church,  but  he  could  not  be 
moved.  He  wrote  to  a  friend :  "  I  am  now  at  my  parents'. 
They  are  persuading  me  to  become  a  Buddhist  priest 
again  but  I  can  resist  it  very  easily.  ...  I  am  full  of 
strength  and  able  to  suffer  any  persecution  for  our 
Lord's  sake."  This  young  man  was  disinherited  and 
driven  from  home  with  nothing  but  one  suit  of  clothes 
on  his  back.  But  God  has  prospered  and  blessed  him 
in  manifold  measure  above  all  that  he  lost  for  his 
faith. 

There  could  not  be  this  fidelity  and  loyalty  to  Christ 


MISS     UNA     TSUDA     IN      HER     OFFICE     AT     THE     WOMEN  S 
ENGLISH   INSTITUTE,  TOKYO 


CHRISTIAN  FIDELITY  195 

without  an  intelligent  and  all-embracing  surrender  to 
Him.  One  official,  who  is  a  Christian,  said :  ''  Our 
people  need  to  see  the  real  Christian  life,  so  I  endeavour 
that  all  may  know  as  I  go  in  and  out  of  my  office  that 
I  am  a  Christian."  An  earnest  young  man  of  the  country 
sold  his  skirt  (which  students  usually  wear)  that  he 
might  buy  a  good-sized  Bible.  Another  young  man  left 
a  good  position  in  the  Arsenal  that  he  might  be  of  use 
for  his  Lord.  He  now  pulls  a  cart  throughout  the 
country,  sells  Bibles,  and  makes  Christ  known  for  the 
first  time  to  thousands  of  farmers  and  country  mer- 
chants. One  Japanese  girl  at  death  fell  asleep  praying; 
another  while  urging  her  relatives  to  turn  to  the  Lord. 
Another  girl  was  asked  whether  she  was  afraid  to  go. 
She  replied :  "  No,  but  I  want  you  all  to  come  soon,  for 
it  will  be  lonely  without  you."  She  then  sang  away  the 
time  until  the  angels  bore  her  spirit  home.  A  young 
Japanese  preacher  gave  a  sermon  on  Christ.  There  was 
much  about  self,  but  little  about  the  Lord.  An  elderly 
woman  in  the  audience,  who  had  been  a  Christian  for 
years,  said  to  him  after  the  sermon,  "  If  one  would  lift 
up  Christ,  he  must  put  himself  to  the  rear  and  Christ  to 
the  front." 

Mrs.  Laura  D.  Garst  tells  of  a  faithful  Christian 
woman  of  some  sixty  years.  When  a  little  girl,  her 
elder  sister  became  ill.  She  promised  her  idols  half  her 
life  period  if  they  would  restore  the  health  of  her  sister. 
She  sold  some  of  her  clothes,  and  bought  presents  with 
the  proceeds  for  a  priest  who  had  promised  that  her 
sister  would  live.  When  the  sister  died,  she  protested 
against  her  burial,  thinking  she  must  be  alive.  After  she 
was  convinced  of  her  sister's  death,  for  three  days  she 
neither  ate  nor  slept.  She  abandoned  her  idols  and 
for  years  searched  for  a  god  who  could  answer  prayer. 
When  she  became  a  Christian,  her  relatives  persecuted 
her  and  children  on  the  streets  vilified  and  stoned  her. 
Nothing  could  turn  her.    Trials  have  enriched  her  life, 


196  THE  KINGDOM 

her  character  is  above  reproach,  and  her  face  is  adorned 
with  every  Christian  grace. 

The  following  is  a  quotation  from  a  letter  from  a 
bright  young  man,  who  most  industriously  and  carefully 
studied  the  New  Testament  before  becoming  a  Chris- 
tian. He  is  now  a  leader  in  one  of  the  churches  in 
Tokyo.  The  quotation  is  a  part  of  a  letter  written  from 
his  home  in  the  interior,  shortly  after  he  entered  the 
Church.  "  All  my  near  relations  being  enthusiastic  Bud- 
dhists, on  hearing  I  am  a  Christian,  all  dislike  me,  but 
such  a  cool  treatment  is  a  due  cost  to  pay  to  go  to 
heaven.  In  the  beginning  of  this  year  I  lost  my  lovely 
mother,  and  in  the  end  I  lost  my  relations'  sympathy.  H 
I  were  not  a  Christian  my  Hfe  would  be  a  most  miserable 
one,  but  now  the  light  in  my  heart  helps  me  to  proceed 
forward  in  the  wilderness  with  a  hope." 

There  is  a  woman  in  Tokyo  who  has  been  a  great 
sufferer.  For  some  years  she  was  compelled  to  move 
about  with  her  family  from  city  to  city,  yet  she  never 
lost  her  faith.  She  keeps  her  mind  on  Christ  and  de- 
lights in  singing  her  hymns.  Without  Christ's  aid  she 
firmly  believes  she  could  not  endure  the  pain  of  her  af- 
flicted body.  One  time  when  the  doctors  were  ready  to 
give  her  an  anaesthetic  for  an  operation,  she  said :  "  Wait 
a  moment;  while  I  commit  my  body  to  you,  I  must 
commit  my  spirit  to  my  Maker." 

Years  ago  a  man  who  was  a  charcoal  dealer  became 
a  Christian.  He  has  made  considerable  money  with  the 
manufacture  of  soap  and  is  now  engaged  in  the  banking 
business.  His  faith  has  grown  with  the  years.  He  is 
a  faithful  observer  of  the  Lord's  Day  and  a  loyal  sup- 
porter of  the  Church.  When  his  church  needed  to  erect 
a  permanent  structure,  he  sold  some  of  his  property  in 
Osaka  and  gave  it  to  the  church — a  sum  which  about 
paid  for  the  church  lot,  which  cost  five  thousand  dollars. 

The  first  two  candidates  baptized  by  A.  D.  Hail  in 
l88i  were  active  supporters  of  the  Church  until  the  day 


CHRISTIAN  FIDELITY  197 

of  their  death.  The  first  became  a  preacher.  He  de- 
clined any  foreign  support  and  maintained  himself  and 
family  by  selling  doughnuts  and  Bibles.  His  useful  life 
was  cut  short  by  an  attack  of  pneumonia,  contracted 
from  exposures  by  carrying  supplies  to  the  needy  at  the 
time  of  a  great  flood.  The  second  man  also  became  a 
preacher.  Both  his  wife  and  daughter  gave  themselves 
to  Christian  work.  His  wife,  when  a  girl,  had  been 
sold,  against  her  will,  by  her  elder  brother,  to  a  life  of 
shame,  but  she  managed  to  escape  and  fled  to  the  shelter 
of  a  missionary's  home.  She  was  given  a  Christian  edu- 
cation, and  until  the  day  of  her  death,  both  in  body  and  in 
spirit,  glorified  her  Lord. 

A  certain  Buddhist  priest,  who  was  master  of  a  temple 
of  four  hundred  supporters,  became  interested  in  Christ. 
He  was  privately  taught  by  a  missionary  and  finally 
baptized.  It  meant  a  life  of  poverty  in  exchange  for  a 
life  of  ease.  He  supported  himself  by  becoming  a  po- 
liceman. His  younger  brother,  angry  and  disgusted, 
sought  to  turn  him  from  Christ.  After  several  letters 
of  remonstrance  had  come  from  the  indignant  brother, 
he,  too,  became  a  Christian,  won  over  by  the  kindly 
spirit  and  teaching  of  his  Christian  brother.  Further- 
more, he  graduated  from  an  American  University,  and 
is  to-day  a  professor  in  Japan,  and  by  his  gifted  tongue 
and  pen  is  a  power  in  propagating  the  cause  he  once 
despised. 

Another  priest  was  the  superintendent  of  some  six 
temples.  During  one  of  the  periodical  festivals,  when 
the  idols  were  propitiated  by  the  gifts  and  incense  of- 
fered by  crowds  of  devotees,  this  priest  became  disgusted 
with  the  immorality  of  his  fellow-priests  and  the  follies 
of  idol-worship.  He  vowed  he  would  never  worship 
another  idol  and  threw  away  the  family  god  given  him 
by  his  father.  When  a  boy  in  Tokyo,  he  had  heard  a 
sermon  preached  by  Bishop  Nicolai,  and  once  in  a  hotel 
he  had  slid  aside  the  paper  door  and  listened  to  a  sermon 


198  THE  KINGDOM 

by  J.  B.  Hail.  The  good  seed  must  have  slowly  sprouted, 
for,  after  two  years  of  gloom,  following  the  festival 
above-mentioned,  he  walked  a  hundred  miles  to  Osaka, 
in  order  that  he  might  hear  from  A.  D.  Hail  the  way 
of  salvation.  Mr.  Hail  at  first  feared  that  he  might 
simply  be  looking  for  employment.  So  he  taught  him 
for  a  month  and  let  the  man  walk  back  home.  After 
a  time  the  man  walked  back  again  over  the  hundred 
miles  of  mountain  road  to  the  missionary's  home.  There 
was  no  question  about  his  faith^  so  he  received  baptism. 
For  years  this  devoted  man  has  been  a  preacher.  He 
often  refers  to  the  two  years  of  wandering  before  his 
baptism,  saying,  "  No  one  can  understand  the  lonesome 
heart  I  had." 

J.  L,  Bearing  tells  of  an  earnest  man  who  attended 
the  Baptist  Seminary  to  prepare  for  the  ministry,  v/ho 
always  carried  a  small  Bible  in  the  sleeve  of  his  kimono. 
He  completed  reading  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  in 
six  months.  Ofttimes,  after  others  had  retired  for  the 
night,  he  would  go  to  the  summer  house  in  the  school 
grounds  where  he  would  pray  long  and  earnestly  in 
audible  prayer.  After  he  had  taken  the  full  course,  he 
returned  to  his  own  district,  where  he  had  formerly 
been  a  policeman.  By  his  zeal.,  his  piety,  and  kindness 
he  turned  many  to  the  Cross.  Throughout  the  region  he 
was  known  by  the  name  of  Sekiyu  (which,  interpreted, 
means  kerosene),  a  complimentary  term  given  him  be- 
cause he  was  a  great  light-bearer,  and  because  kerosene 
oil  was  the  best  light  that  remote  region  could  afford. 
His  ministry  was  cut  short  by  a  fatal  illness,  and  just 
as  he  breathed  his  last  he  lifted  his  eyes  and  said : 
"  Heaven,  Cross,  Saviour !  " 

Another  man,  who  for  some  years  has  preached  the 
word,  was  in  his  youth  a  priest  in  a  Buddhist  temple. 
His  mother  thought  it  would  give  peace  to  the  spirit 
of  his  dead  father  if  he  became  a  priest.  Some  years 
after,  he  found  a  copy  of  Matthew  among  his  father's 


CHRISTIAN  FIDELITY  199 

books.  A  friend  who  was  a  Christian,  in  speaking  about 
the  book,  said  that  it  told  of  Jesus  who  was  the  only  per- 
fect man  and  the  only  Saviour  of  the  world.  This 
angered  the  young  zealot  of  Buddhism.  He  began  a 
careful  study  of  Matthew,  that  he  might  find  flaws  to 
refute  the  assertion  of  his  friend.  Jesus,  to  his  surprise, 
arose  in  his  own  admiration  above  that  which  he  had 
always  had  for  Buddha  and  Confucius,  till  at  last  he 
exclaimed,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God !  "  He  and  a  com- 
panion were  the  first  to  be  baptized  in  a  town  of  five 
thousand,  and  some  years  later  he  returned  to  the  same 
city  to  preach  the  Gospel. 

A.  D.  Hail  related  the  following  experience  which 
happened  when  on  a  tour  with  his  wife  and  children 
to  the  city  of  Tanabe.  It  was  a  long  journey  on  foot, 
and  about  sundown  he  was  met  in  the  road  of  a  wayside 
town  by  a  man  with  a  little  girl  and  a  girl-baby  on  his 
back.  This  man  urged  him  to  tarry  for  the  night  in  his 
own  house,  and  the  missionary  gladly  accepted  the  invi- 
tation. The  next  day,  on  reaching  Tanabe,  a  Christian 
girl  informed  him  that  his  hostess  on  the  previous  night 
was  her  sister.  She  had  taught  her,  and  she  had  already 
asked  for  baptism.  They  sent,  therefore,  a  messenger, 
saying  that  on  the  following  day  Mr.  Hail  would  return 
and  baptize  the  woman  who  had  kept  them  over  night. 
But  the  plan  caused  a  storm  of  opposition,  led  by  the 
woman's  mother-in-law,  so  the  baptism  was  deferred  till 
the  next  visit  of  the  missionary.  In  the  meantime,  the 
woman  declined  to  offer  the  rice  and  pray  to  the  family 
gods,  and  this  made  matters  still  worse.  Her  husband 
proposed  that  she  go  through  the  prescribed  motions  but 
pray  to  her  own  god  instead  of  to  the  idols,  but  she 
rejected  any  act  of  dissimulation.  Before  the  missionary 
could  return,  the  woman  was  carried  away  with  an 
attack  of  cholera.  She  died  professing  faith  in  Jesus 
to  her  relatives  and,  to  their  astonishment,  sang  her 
favourite  Christian  hymns  till  she  breathed  her  last. 


200  THE  KINGDOM 

Her  husband's  family  for  generations  had  been  pros- 
perous brewers.  Just  two  years  after  her  death,  her 
husband's  brother  turned  to  Christ,  and  her  own  hus- 
band followed  with  the  good  confession  shortly  after. 
It  meant  a  great  financial  loss  to  both  brothers.  Her 
own  husband  became  a  milk-merchant  and  the  brother 
became  a  minister.  Her  two  little  girls  lived  to  graduate 
from  Christian  schools — one  becoming  the  wife  of  a 
Christian  teacher  and  one  the  wife  of  a  minister.  Even 
the  mother-in-law  responded  at  last  to  the  call  of  the 
Good  Shepherd.  At  her  baptism,  with  tears  streaming 
down  her  face,  she  said,  "  Oh,  that  my  poor  daughter- 
in-law  whom  I  persecuted  so  could  only  have  lived  to 
have  seen  this  day ! " 


V 
CHRISTIAN    FORCES  AT   WORK 


A  tradesman  in  the  slums  of  London  was  once  asked  if  he 
approved  of  the  Salvation  Army,  and  he  promptly  replied,  "  No, 
I  don't,  but  I  know  that  God  Almighty  does." — Japan  Evangelist, 
December,  1912,  p.  592. 

In  this  world  the  one  thing  supremely  worth  having  is  the 
opportunity,  coupled  with  the  capacity,  to  do  well  and  worthily 
a  piece  of  work,  the  doing  of  which  is  of  vital  consequence  to 
the  welfare  of  mankind. — Theodore  Roosevelt. 

Boys  and  girls,  big  and  little,  dull  and  bright,  dirty  and  clean, 
but  mostly  as  full  of  fun  as  a  box  full  of  kittens,  are  being 
weaned  away  from  idols  and  superstitions  to  a  knowledge  of 
God  and  His  love. — Capt.  Luke  W.  Bickel,  "  The  Log  of  the 
Gospel  Ship,"  p.  46. 

So  far  as  human  eyes  can  see,  even  the  foreign  missionaries 
who  share  in  the  evangelization  of  Japan  must  continue  in  full 
swing  for  another  fifty  years,  and  when  even  then  comes  and 
the  whistle  blows  and  the  labourers  leave  the  works,  I  think 
there  will  be  some  choice  workmen  who  will  be  asked  to  stay 
and  do  "  overtime." — J.  G.  Dunlop,  Christian  Movement,  1910, 
P-  351- 

What,  then,  is  the  end  of  the  Sunday  School?  Character 
training  for  service  in  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom.  There  we 
have  an  end  worthy  of  a  lifetime  effort,  worthy  of  the  church 
at  work  in  the  greatest  thing  which  God  permits  man  to  do. — ■ 
Charles  D.  Trumbull,  "  The  World  Call  to  Men  of  To-day," 
p.  231. 

The  opening  of  English  literature  to  the  mind  is  the  opening 
of  a  window  towards  fresh  air  and  sunshine  and  magnificent 
new  vistas  of  thought  and  feeling.  The  careful  study  of  Eng- 
lish literature  is  in  itself  a  liberal  education  to  the  mind  trained 
only  in  Japanese  thought. — Miss  Alice  Mabel  Bacon,  Japan 
Evangelist,  1902,  p.  4. 

This  truth  comes  to  us  more  and  more  the  longer  we  live — 
that  on  what  field  or  in  what  uniform  or  with  what  aims  we  do 
our  duty  matters  very  little,  or  even  what  our  duty  is,  great 
or  small,  splendid  or  obscure ;  only  to  find  our  duty  certainly 
and  somewhere  or  somehow,  to  do  it  faithfully  makes  us  good, 
strong,  happy,  and  useful,  and  tunes  our  lives  into  some  feeble 
echo  of  the  life  of  God. 


V 
CHRISTIAN  FORCES  AT  WORK 

IT  is  the  genius  of  Christianity  to  organize  men  and 
inspire  them  with  the  spirit  of  its  Founder.  Through 
faith  in  Him  they  do  the  works  which  He  did  and 
even  greater  works,  because  He  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
Authority  and  Power.  In  considering  the  growth  of 
Christianity  in  any  mission  field,  it  is  not  enough  to 
count  the  number  of  churches  and  converts,  teachers  and 
schools.  An  estimate  should  be  made  of  the  full  fruitage, 
for  like  a  magic  tree  bearing  fruit  in  abundance  and  of 
diversified  kinds,  Christianity  bears  its  fruit.  And  the 
fruit  being  good,  men  are  irresistibly  drawn  to  respect 
the  tree,  "  for  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit." 

Buddhism,  Brahminism,  and  Mohammedanism  may  be 
likened  to  the  manufactured  trees  of  an  artist,  in  a 
museum.  They  do  not  of  themselves  bear  such  fruitage 
as  the  Salvation  Army,  the  Red  Cross  Society,  or  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  True,  the  hospital  and  orphanage  have  of 
late  been  adopted  by  non-Christian  faiths,  but  they  fit 
in  little  better  than  a  lot  of  real  peaches  or  pears  tied 
on  to  a  show-tree  of  coloured  fibre,  cloth  leaves,  and 
flowers  of  wax. 

In  making  a  brief  survey,  therefore,  of  forces  at  work 
for  the  good  and  the  Christianization  of  Japan,  apart 
from  institutions  which  are  distinctly  governmental  or 
national  in  character,  it  is  very  noticeable  that  move- 
ments which  have  for  their  object  the  uplift  and  bless- 
ing of  society,  have  rested  back  upon  a  Christian  be- 
ginning or  are  maintained  by  a  noticeably  large  number  of 
Christians. 

In  the  temperance  work,   Ando  Taro  has  been  the 

203 


204.  THE  KINGDOM 

President  of  the  Temperance  League  for  many  years. 
During  1886  to  1889,  while  he  was  Consul  at  Honolulu, 
he  became  a  Christian,  and  ever  since  has  been  an  earnest 
and  hopeful  advocate  of  the  temperance  cause.  He 
gives  all  his  time  to  the  work  and,  besides  supporting 
himself,  gives  of  his  own  money  to  the  cause  and  travels 
over  the  whole  empire,  speaking  in  schools,  churches, 
and  theatres.  The  National  Temperance  League,  organ- 
ized in  1898,  has  a  membership  of  ten  thousand  and 
circulates  a  monthly  called  the  Light  of  Our  Land. 

Japan's  greatest  tax  upon  her  national  strength  is  the 
great  throng  who  fall  yearly  into  a  consumptive's  grave. 
"  The  Anti-Tuberculosis  Society  of  Foreigners  in  Japan  " 
was  launched  September  3,  1912.  It  aims  to  scatter 
information  which  will  lead  to  the  prevention  and  cure 
of  tuberculosis.  The  society  originated  at  a  conference 
of  missionaries  in  Karuizawa. 

The  White  Cross  Society,  an  anti-tuberculosis  move- 
ment, was  organized  by  Japanese  Christian  physicians 
in  191 1.  They  have  circulated  many  tens  of  thousands  of 
pamphlets  and  have  made  thousands  of  gratuitous  visits 
upon  the  sick.  They  have  established  a  hospital  among 
the  pine  trees  in  the  balmy  air  which  blows  in  from 
the  sea  near  Kamakura. 

The  Japan  Purity  Association  was  organized  July  8, 
191 1.  The  president  and  vice-presidents  are  Christians. 
The  society  publishes  a  magazine  and  has,  through  its 
public  meetings,  conducted  a  spirited  campaign  against 
the  Yoshiwara  System.  The  society  was  greatly  helped 
by  a  five  months'  visit  from  Maurice  Gregory  of  London, 
of  international  fame. 

The  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Animals 
was  founded  April  15,  1902,  and  is  affiliated  with  the 
American  Society.  It  holds  monthly  meetings.  Among 
other  things  it  endeavours  to  provide  drinking  troughs  for 
animals  and  have  fish  and  fowl  killed  out  of  sight  of 
children. 


CHRISTIAN  FORCES  AT  WORK        205 

Japan  has  its  Peace  Forum,  which  was  organized  in 
191 1,  upon  the  visit  of  John  Wesley  Hill,  President  of  the 
International  Peace  Forum.  There  were  present  at  its 
organization  Viscount  Kaneko,  Baron  Sakatani,  Nemoto 
Sho,  a  member  of  Parliament,  Bishop  Honda,  and  Presi- 
dent libuka. 

The  American  Peace  Society  of  Japan  is  composed 
of  Americans  residing  in  Japan.  It  was  organized  Jan- 
uary 30,  191 1,  in  Yokohama,  in  the  rooms  of  the  Foreign 
Board  of  Trade,  the  president  of  which,  D.  H.  Blake, 
presided  at  the  first  meeting.  The  American  Am- 
bassador, Mr.  O'Brien,  said  at  the  meeting :  "  There  is 
no  cause  under  the  sun  why  there  should  be  distrust 
between  the  people  of  these  two  countries." 

The  Japan  Peace  Society  was  organized  in  Tokyo, 
May  18,  1906,  with  Hon.  S.  Ebara,  a  Christian,  as  its 
first  president.  With  the  co-operation  of  the  American 
Peace  Society,  it  publishes  a  magazine.  Both  societies 
encourage  the  observation  of  the  third  Sunday  in  De- 
cember as  Peace  Sunday.  Inazo  Nitobe,  who  visited  the 
United  States  on  a  lecturing  tour,  was  sent  by  the  "  Japan 
Branch "  or  "  The  Japanese  Society "  of  New  York 
City.*  His  visit  was  reciprocated  by  the  lectures  of 
Hamilton  Wright  Mabie,  sent  by  the  Carnegie  Endow- 
ment for  International  Peace. 

The  beginning  of  the  Salvation  Army  in  Japan  was 
in  1895,  when  the  first  officers  arrived  and  opened  up 
work  on  Ginza  Street,  Tokyo.  The  Army  has  won  the 
confidence  and  support  of  many  eminent  men  in  Japan. 
In  its  beginning,  the  work  was  not  understood  and  quite 

*The  exchange  of  lectures  had  its  beginning  in  the  kindly 
and  persistent  effort  of  Hamilton  ?Iolt,  editor  of  the  hide- 
Pendent.  While  in  America,  Professor  Nitobe,  who  speaks  ex- 
cellent English,  spoke  166  times.  While  a  student  in  the  Imperial 
University,  he  made  a  specialty  of  English  literature,  that  he 
might  contribute  his  part  in  bringing  across  the  Pacific  a  friendly 
feeling  of  interest  between  Japan  and  the  United  States. 


206  THE  KINGDOM 

a  few  of  the  workers  were  imprisoned  for  a  short  time. 
Commissioner  Hodder  and  Lieutenant  Colonel  Yama- 
muro  carry  the  chief  responsibility  for  the  work  in  25 
cities  besides  Tokyo.  There  is  a  total  of  40  Army  corps 
and  167  officers.  The  good  works  they  carry  on  is 
legion.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned  a  training  school 
for  cadets,  2  rescue  homes  for  girls,  i  home  for  ex- 
prisoners,  4  homes  for  workmen,  i  hospital,  and  2  sea- 
men's homes.  In  their  social  relief  work  during  one 
year,  they  furnished  56,269  beds,  97,688  meals,  and  col- 
lected $7,635  through  their  Self-denial  and  Thanks- 
giving funds.  The  poverty  in  the  large  cities  and  the 
social  problems  which  grow  more  momentous  yearly, 
give  the  Salvation  Army  a  field  in  which,  as  experts, 
they  can  wisely  and  beneficently  carry  bodily  comfort 
and  hope  to  great  numbers  who  cannot  be  reached  in 
any  other  way. 

What  Christian  advocates  are  doing  by  tongue  and 
pen,  Lever  Brothers,  of  Port  Sunlight,  England,  makers 
of  Sunlight  Soap,  propose  to  do  in  a  practical  way  near 
Osaka.  They  have  bought  about  forty  acres  of  land 
and  will  develop  a  great  manufacturing  plant.  They  will 
give  their  employees  "  a  six-day  week  and  an  eight-hour 
day,  model  cottages,  educational  and  recreational  pro- 
visions, a  share  in  the  profits,  pensions,  gardens  to  culti- 
vate, and,  in  general,  an  object  lesson  in  Christian  en- 
terprise." *  The  project  has  an  enhanced  value  as  an 
object  lesson  when  one  considers  the  great  expansion 
that  Japan  must  make  industrially,  and  that  present  meth- 
ods are  one  hundred  years  behind  the  times. 

Medical  missions,  which  receive  much  attention  in 
most  mission  fields,  are  limited  in  Japan,  owing  to  many 
private  and  governmental  hospitals.  The  success,  there- 
fore, of  St.  Luke's  Hospital  in  Tokyo,  sustained  by  the 
American  Episcopalians,  is  wholly  due  to  excellent  man- 
agement, real  efficiency,  and  the  use  of  the  latest  sci- 

*W.  M.  Vories,  in  Japan  Evangelist,  February,  1913. 


CHRISTIAN  FORCES  AT  WORK         207 

entific  appliances.  The  institution  was  started  in  1895, 
and  reopened  in  1900.  There  is  accommodation  for  80 
in-patients.  From  100  to  150  out-patients  are  treated 
daily,  most  of  whom  are  charity  cases.  The  hospital 
supports  a  nurses'  training  school  and  a  first-class  phar- 
macy which  does  a  big  retail  and  export  business.  Dr. 
Theo.  Bliss,  a  graduate  of  the  Cornell  College  of  Medi- 
cine, has  charge  of  the  medical  department.  Dr.  R.  B. 
Teusler  is  the  chief  surgeon  and  business  manager,  to 
whom  the  success  and  the  enlargement  of  the  hospital 
are  chiefly  due.  In  one  of  the  parlours  can  be  seen, 
within  a  large  glass  case,  a  beautiful  bouquet  which  was 
a  donation  of  the  late  Emperor,  as  a  recognition  of  what 
the  hospital  has  done.  Several  score  of  missionaries  owe 
their  lives  or  their  soundness  of  body  to  this  institution 
of  mercy.  Missionaries  who  otherwise  would  have  been 
compelled  to  return  to  the  home  lands  for  treatment, 
have  been  cared  for  at  St.  Luke's,  and  thus  Mission 
Boards  have  been  saved  thousands  of  dollars. 

The  Christian  pulpit  has  become  an  established  thing 
in  Japan.  On  many  week  days,  as  well  as  Sundays,  the 
missionaries  and  the  Japanese  ministers  can  be  found  at 
public  halls,  hotels,  or  private  homes,  telling  "  the  old, 
old  story."  Just  as  New  York  has  its  Jerry  McCauley 
mission  and  Chicago  has  its  Pacific  Garden  mission,  so 
Japan  has  several  missions  which  have  services  six  nights 
in  the  week,  and  one  hall  in  Kanda,  Tokyo,  is  open 
nightly  the  year  around. 

The  Evangelistic  Band's  nightly  service  in  Kobe  will 
soon  be  carried  to  a  new  mission  hall  located  in 
the  centre  of  the  haunts  of  sin  and  pleasure,  where  fre- 
quently 60,000  pass  in  and  out  of  the  music  halls  and 
theatres. 

The  Baptist  Tabernacle  in  Tokyo,  where  Wm.  Ax- 
ling  and  his  staff  of  workers  daily  toil,  is  another  illus- 
tration of  evangelistic  zeal.  Besides  the  regular  preach- 
ing services,  there  are  lectures,  social  meetings,  special 


208  THE  KINGDOM 

evangelistic  efforts,  Bible  classes,  and  meetings  for  in- 
quirers. The  Tabernacle  publishes  a  magazine  and  sup- 
ports a  reading  room,  a  social  room  for  games,  two 
English  classes,  a  children's  club,  and  a  nursery  for 
children  whose  mothers  are  away  at  work. 

Another  worthy  work  is  that  carried  on  by  W.  P.  Bun- 
combe and  co-labourers  at  Whidborne  Mission  Hall,  in 
the  busiest  part  of  Tokyo.  It  was  founded  in  1896  and 
was  named  in  honour  of  F.  Whidborne,  who  donated  the 
land.  It  is  supported  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society. 
After  the  open  meeting,  composed  of  those  who  have 
entered  the  hall  from  the  street,  those  desiring  to  inquire 
more  particularly  about  Christianity  are  given  special 
Bible  readings  and  instructions  in  an  upstairs  room. 
Sixty  thousand  tracts  and  leaflets  are  given  out  annually 
at  the  hall. 

The  Sunday  School  work  in  Japan  is  well  organized 
and  is  a  mighty  power  for  good.*  The  first  union  effort 
in  Sunday  School  work  was  made  by  the  Methodists 
and  Presbyterians.  H.  M.  Landis  and  T.  M,  MacNair 
worked  jointly  on  the  first  united  Sunday  School  period- 
ical, which  grew  out  of  a  Sunday  School  paper  edited 
by  E.  R.  Miller.  Since  the  angels  sang  at  our  Saviour's 
birth,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  songs  have  given  greater  joy 
in  heaven  than  the  songs  which  are  being  sung  by  the 
Sunday  School  children  and  are  caught  up  by  an  ever 
increasing  multitude  in  Japan,  China,  India,  Africa,  the 
Levant,  and  the  Isles  of  the  Sea. 

Since  1893,  Japan  has  had  its  Christian  Endeavour 
Union.  The  first  Japanese  Endeavour  Society  organ- 
ized was  at  Okayama,  in  1888.  The  headquarters  of  the 
work  is  at  Kyoto.  There  are  three  secretaries,  who  work 
respectively  in  western,  central,  and  eastern  Japan. 
An  annual  convention  is  held,  and  a  monthly  magazine 
is  published.     Counting  both  junior  and  adult  societies, 

*  See  Appendix  C  for  contributed  article  by  John  G.  Dunlop, 
a  leader  in  Sunday  School  work. 


CHRISTIAN  FORCES  AT  WORK         209 

there  are  170  all  told.  An  annual  grant-in-aid  of  $1,000 
is  contributed  by  the  World's  Union.* 

About  thirteen-fourteenths  of  the  Bibles  issued  by 
27  of  the  leading  societies  are  put  out  by  Anglo- 
Saxons.  Great  Britain  sends  out  about  three-fourths 
of  the  output  of  these  societies.  The  translation  and 
distribution  of  Bibles  in  Japan  is  at  the  very  founda- 
tion of  all  the  Christian  work  in  the  country.  Besides  the 
Japanese  translation,  there  are  special  translations  which 
can  be  read  by  the  Ainu  and  the  islanders  of  the  Loo 
Choo  group.  The  American  Bible  Society  works  mainly 
in  eastern  and  northern  Japan.  The  British  and  For- 
eign Bible  Society  and  National  Bible  Society  of  Scot- 
land distribute  in  western  and  southern  Japan.  The 
two  latter  societies  have  distributed  3,500,000  copies  or 
portions  of  the  Bible  since  their  work  commenced  in 
1875.  They  recently  sent  out  26,000  Bibles  to  the  police 
of  twenty-eight  of  the  provinces  of  Japan.  The  Japan 
agency  of  the  American  Bible  Society  was  established 
in  1876.  They  have  sold  since  the  beginning,  2,642,541 
portions  of  Scripture,  and  last  year  they  had  forty-nine 
colporteurs  in  their  employ. 

Since  191 1,  a  committee  of  which  Daniel  Crosby 
Greene  is  chairman,  has  been  at  work  on  a  revision  of 
the  New  Testament  issued  by  the  Yokohama  translation 
committee.  A  version  of  the  New  Testament  by  Pere 
Ragnet,  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  as  well  as  the 
translation  by  Archbishop  Nicolai,  have  had  large  sales. 
No  complete  commentary  on  the  Old  Testament  has  yet 
been  issued  in  Japanese.  There  are  commentaries  on 
Genesis,  Job,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Isaiah,  Amos,  and  pos- 
sibly other  Old  Testament  books.  D.  W.  Learned,  of 
the  American  Board,  has  given  the  Church  in  Japan 
a  complete  commentary  on  the  New  Testament,  which 
he  later  completely  revised, 

*  See  Appendix  D  for  contributed  a*ticle  by  J.  H.  Pettee,  an 
active  supporter  of  the  Endeavour  Society. 


glO  THE  KINGDOM 

The  Japan  Book  and  Tract  Society  has  put  into  cir- 
culation 1,101,876  tracts,  according  to  its  last  annual 
report.  The  society  is  a  combination  of  the  committees 
of  the  American  Tract  Society  of  New  York  and  the 
Religious  Tract  Society  of  London.  Of  the  books  it 
has  sold,  "  Martin's  Evidences  of  Christianity  "  heads 
the  list  and  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  comes  next.* 

The  entire  Christian  community  in  Japan  is  under 
obligations  to  the  Methodist  Publishing  House  of  Tokyo, 
which  has  a  store  well  stocked  with  Christian  and  mis- 
cellaneous books  in  English  and  Japanese.  It  carries 
on  a  first-class  printing  plant,  from  whose  press  about 
5,000,000  pages  are  issued  monthly.  The  other  Christian 
publishing  houses  in  Japan  are  the  Keiseisha,  of  Tokyo, 
the  Seikokwai  Shuppansha,  of  Kobe,  and  the  Fukuinsha, 
of  Osaka. 

A  new  organization  has  just  come  into  being  in  Japan 
called  "  The  Christian  Literature  Society  of  Japan."  It 
is  an  outgrowth  of  the  Committee  on  Christian  Lit- 
erature of  the  "  Conference  of  Federated  Missions." 
The  society  will  be  incorporated  and  render  a  service  for 
Japan  much  the  same  as  similar  societies  organized  years 
ago  in  India  and  China. 

"  Next  to  the  living  Christian  comes  the  printed  page. 
The  intellectual  grapple,  it  is  safe  to  say,  will  take  place 
here  preeminently.  Sermons  and  lectures  do  not  afford 
time  for  that  deep,  long-sustained  logic  and  criticism  by 
which  error  can  be  adequately  exposed  and  truth  ex- 
pounded. The  human  voice,  likewise,  cannot  reach  tens 
of  millions  who  live  in  towns  and  villages  and  even  in 
cities,  who  have  no  interest  in  the  new  way  and  cannot 
be  attracted  to  the  churches."  f 

*  The  Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  1910,  p.  572. 

t  Sidney  L.  Gulick,  The  Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  255. 


VI 
DIFFERENT    MISSIONS   AT   WORK 


Is  the  reunion  of  Christendom,  we  cannot  help  asking,  finally 
to  come  as  a  reward  for  the  missionary  devotion  and  sacrifice 
of  the  church? — Dr.  James  S.  Dennis,  "The  New  Horoscope  of 
Missions." 

The  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  many  ways  appeals  to  Japanese 
aesthetic  feelings  more  than  Protestantism,  but  the  idea  of  be- 
k)nging  to  an  institution  directed  from  Europe  by  a  foreign  chief 
is  repugnant  to  the  majority.— Sir  C.  Eliot,  "Letters  from  the 
Far  East,"  p.  177. 

Christian  faith  is  a  grand  cathedral,  with  divinely  pictured 
windows.  Standing  without,  you  can  see  no  glory,  nor  can 
imagine  any,  but  standing  within  every  ray  of  light  reveals  a 
harmony  of  unspeakable  splendours. 

A  people  who  say  that  they  do  not  believe  in  foreign  missions 
are  usually  quite  unconscious  of  the  indictment  which  they 
bring  against  their  own  spiritual  experience.  The  man  who  has 
no  religion  of  his  own  that  he  values,  of  course,  is  not  inter- 
ested in  the  effort  to  make  it  known  to  others. 

One  of  the  strongest  evidences  of  the  forebearance  of  the 
All  Merciful  Father  is  not  so  much  His  longsuffering  towards 
rebellious  sinners  as  his  patience  with  party  strife  and  sectional 
spirit  among  those  who  profess  to  be  imitators  of  Christ,  and 
even  claim  the  high  honour  of  being  his  heralds  and  repre- 
sentatives.— Gideon  F.  Draper,  Tokyo  Missionary  Conference, 
1910,  p.  122. 

If  there  were  such  a  temple  in  which  light  came  only  from 
one  small  aperture  in  the  roof,  people  would  not  unite  if  they 
tried  to  gather  in  different  parts  of  the  temple,  but  only  if  all 
of  them  tended  to  the  light  coming  from  the  roof.  The  same 
with  truth.  Truth  and  only  truth  can  unite  mankind. — Auto- 
graph Letter  of  Leo  Tolstoi  to  Doshisha  University,  May  2,  1910. 

The  native  church,  equipped  for  its  work,  recognizing  no 
master  but  Christ,  answerable  to  no  other  ecclesiasticism,  guided 
by  the  spirit  of  God,  is  the  immediate  end  in  view  of  the  mis- 
sionary and  the  mission,  the  missionary  society,  the  church  at 
home,  so  far  as  the  foreign  field  is  concerned ;  the  immediate 
end,  in  order  to  the  ultimate  end,  the  establishment  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.— Edwin  Bliss,  "The  Missionary  Enterprise," 
P-  195- 


VI 

DIFFERENT  MISSIONS  AT  WORK 

AMERICAN  Episcopalians  (Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States)  have  a  prosperous 
L  work  centring  in  Kyoto  and  Tokyo,  superin- 
tended by  Bishop  H.  St.  George  Tucker  and  Bishop 
John  McKim.  The  Kyoto  District  has  fifty-six  churches 
and  preaching  places.  Among  the  schools  and  institu- 
tions are  a  girls'  high  school,  two  industrial  schools  for 
women,  a  hospital,  two  orphanages,  and  a  school  for 
feeble-minded  children.  Since  1893,  the  Tokyo  District 
has  grown  from  fifteen  places  where  services  are  regu- 
larly held  to  fifty.  St.  Luke's  Hospital  has  been  re- 
peatedly enlarged.  St.  Paul's  College  (Rikkyo  Gakuin) 
has  seven  hundred  boys  and  St.  Margaret's  Girls'  School 
two  hundred  and  twenty-five  in  attendance.  There  are 
five  other  schools,  besides  sixteen  kindergartens. 

Baptist  mission  work  in  Japan  began  under  Jonathan 
Goble,  who  laboured  from  i860  to  1873.  He  had  visited 
Japan  in  Perry's  fleet  and  thus  became  impressed  with 
the  country's  needs.  The  next  missionary  was  Nathan 
Brown,  who  came  at  the  age  of  sixty-five.  In  a  short 
time  he  had  completed  a  translation  of  the  entire  New 
Testament,  eighteen  months  before  the  Committee's  ver- 
sion was  on  the  market.*  The  work  of  the  Baptists 
has  been  chiefly  evangelistic.  They  were  late  in  starting 
their  schools. 

*  See  H.  Ritter,  "  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  Japan," 
p.  224.  Dr.  Brown's  version  has  been  highly  regarded  by  the 
Japanese  because  of  its  close  adherence  to  the  original  Greek. 
Before  he  came  to  Japan  he  had  spent  twenty-four  years  in 
Burmah  and  Assam  and  had  translated  hymns  and  portions  of 
the  Bible  into  both  the  languages. 

213 


214  THE  KINGDOM 

The  Baptists  (Southern)  began  their  work  in  1889, 
by  the  coming  of  John  W.  McCollum  and  John  A.  Brun- 
sion.  Their  force  of  nineteen  missionaries  and  twenty- 
two  Japanese  workers  are  located  mostly  in  the  island  of 
Kyushu  and  adjacent  parts.  Their  Fukuoka  Seminary 
was  united  with  the  Yokohama  Seminary,  and  is  now 
known  as  the  Japan  Baptist  Theological  Seminary.  By 
the  help  of  the  Judson  Centennial  Fund,  they  hope  to 
establish  a  number  of  kindergartens  and  schools  for 
boys  and  girls. 

Catholic  missions  are  laying  deep  and  broad  founda- 
tions in  Japan.  The  awful  persecutions  at  the  opening 
of  the  Seventeenth  Century  never  entirely  obliterated 
Catholicism.  There  are  five  dioceses,  Nagasaki,  Osaka, 
Shikoku,  Tokyo,  and  Hakodate.  Their  labour  and  suc- 
cess can  be  seen  by  the  conversion  of  66,909  converts, 
142  foreign  missionaries,  67  foreign  teachers  and  other 
workers,  185  foreign  women  in  schools  and  charity 
work,  40  schools,  5,459  pupils  in  the  same,  23  orphan- 
ages with  1,114  inmates,  9  hospitals,  and  176  Japanese 
men  and  women  consecrated  to  Christian  work.* 

Congregationalists  opened  their  work  in  Kobe  by  the 
coming  of  D.  C.  Greene  and  wife  in  1869.  The  mission 
consists  of  about  sixty  members,  and  has  stations  at 
Kobe,  Osaka,  Kyoto,  Okayama,  Niigata,  Sendai,  Mat- 
suyama,  Maebashi,  Tottori,  Miyazaki,  Sapporo,  and 
Tokyo.  The  chief  educational  institutions  are :  Kobe 
(Girls')  College,  a  woman's  evangelistic  school,  a  kin- 
dergarten training  school,  Matsuyama  Girls'  School, 
and  five  kindergartens.  Many  of  the  missionaries  teach 
in  the  academical  and  theological  departments  of  the 
Japan  Christian  University  of  Doshisha,  founded  in 
Kyoto  by  the  famous  Neesima. 

Church  of  England  in  Canada. — T.  C.  Robinson,  who 
opened  the  work  at  Nagoya  in  1888,  was  the  first 
Canadian  to  be  supported  by  his  church  in  Canada.    In 

*  Statistics  for  August,  191 L. 


DIFFERENT  MISSIONS  AT  WORK      ^15 

191 1,  by  action  of  the  general  Synods  of  Japan  and 
Canada,  a  new  diocese  to  be  supported  by  Canadian 
Episcopalians  was  formed  from  the  prefectures  of  Aichi, 
Gifu,  Nagano,  and  Niigata,  and  the  following  year,  H. 
T.  Hamilton  was  consecrated  as  the  first  bishop.  The 
mission  works  in  a  needy  field  where  they  have  twenty 
Japanese  evangelists,  ten  Bible  women,  two  kinder- 
gartens, a  hostel  for  girls,  and  a  school  for  the  blind  at 
Gifu. 

The  Christian  Convention  (American)  opened  work  at 
Ishinomaki,  North  Japan,  in  1887,  by  the  coming  of 
D.  F.  Jones  and  wife.  Tokyo,  Sendai,  and  Utsonomiya 
are  centres  of  work.  A  non-denominational  Consumptive 
Aid  Society  was  formed  by  one  of  the  churches. 

The  Church  Missionary  Society  began  work  in  Japan 
by  the  coming  of  A.  Ensor  to  Nagasaki,  in  1869.  C)saka, 
the  next  point,  was  opened  in  1873  by  C.  F.  Warren. 
There  are  now  3  bishoprics,  18  stations,  68  out-stations, 
79  missionaries,  21  Japanese  clergy,  146  male  and  female 
helpers,  and  10,036  baptized  adherents.  The  headquar- 
ters of  the  mission  is  at  Osaka,  where  they  have  a  flour- 
ishing middle  school  of  600  students,  a  girls'  high 
school,  a  theological  school,  and  a  school  for  Bible 
women. 

The  Disciples  of  Christ  are  working  mostly  in  evan- 
gelistic lines  in  the  cities  and  towns  near  their  four 
stations,  Akita,  Sendai,  Tokyo,  and  Osaka.  Their  work 
has  been  hindered  owing  to  the  late  establishment  of  their 
educational  institutions.  Considerable  expansion  in  evan- 
gelistic and  school  work  will  be  made  when  Japan's  por- 
tion of  the  Million  Dollar  Equipment  Fund,  recently 
raised  in  America,  has  been  turned  into  spiritual  values. 
The  mission  has  three  kindergartens,  two  children's 
day  schools,  a  middle  school  for  boys,  a  Bible  school, 
and  a  school  for  girls. 

The  Evangelistic  Band  is  composed  of  missionaries 
from  various  churches  and  Japanese  workers.     It  does 


216  THE  KINGDOM 

not  establish  churches,  but  being  interdenominational,  it 
aims  to  assist  wherever  invited.  Special  effort  is  made 
to  reach  the  common  people,  the  industrial  and  agri- 
cultural classes.  The  Band  issues  two  monthlies — the 
Christian  News  has  a  circulation  of  17,000.  The  Band 
is  supported  by  a  board  in  England,  of  which  Hon.  B.  F. 
Buxton  is  chairman. 

The  Evangelical  Association  was  organized  in  1876. 
There  is  a  force  of  11  missionaries,  2y  Japanese  preach- 
ers, and  12  Bible  women.  The  church  membership  is 
1,100,  and  over  3.500  are  in  their  Sunday  Schools.  The 
work  centres  around  Osaka  and  Tokyo.  The  mission 
has  a  good  record  for  work  attempted  and  accomplished. 

The  Free  Methodists  first  came  in  1903  (Wesley  F. 
Matthewson,  August  Youngren  and  their  wives),  but 
their  work  had  been  started  in  1895  by  a  Japanese  named 
Masazi  Kabibara.  The  principal  work  is  in  Osaka,  the 
islands  of  Awaji  and  Akashi.  A  school  for  evangelists 
is  maintained  in  Osaka. 

The  Greek  Catholic  Church  (Orthodox  Church  of 
Japan)  is  the  spiritual  harvest  of  the  labours  of  one 
great  man.  Archbishop  Nicolai,  who  died  February  16, 
1912.  His  successor,  Bishop  Sergui,  was  on  the  ground 
a  short  time  before  the  death  of  the  great  Russian 
apostle,  and  made  a  tour  of  the  entire  field.  The  266 
churches  have  a  membership  of  33,377,  which  contribute 
over  $10,000  yearly  towards  self-support.  The  baptisms 
for  1912  were  1,019.  The  headquarters  of  the  mission 
are  in  Tokyo,  where  a  massive  cathedral,  situated  in  the 
heart  of  the  city,  lifts  its  dome  high  in  air. 

The  Hephzibah  Faith  Mission  carries  on  a  work  at 
Theatre  Street,  Yokohama,  among  the  poor.  Last  year 
they  had  nightly  meetings,  save  during  August.  They 
sold  or  gave  away  25,000  tracts  and  2,225  Bibles  and 
portions. 

Lutheran  Missions. — An  earnest  band  doing  effective 
work  in  Japan  represents  the  great  Lutheran  Church. 


DIFFERENT  MISSIONS  AT  WORK      217 

Considering  the  ability  of  the  home  churches,  the  equip- 
ment and  number  of  missionaries  is  limited.  Four  mis- 
sions labour  in  this  group,  namely :  Foreign  Board  of 
the  General  Council  of  the  Lutheran  Church  of  Amer- 
ica (North),  the  Mission  Board  of  the  United  Synod 
(South),  United  Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church 
of  America,  Evangelical  Lutheran  Association  of  Fin- 
land. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  Mission  was  organ- 
ized in  Yokohama,  1873.  The  charter  members  were 
Dr.  R.  S.  MacClay,  J.  C.  Davison,  Julius  Soper,  and 
M.  C.  Harris.  At  this  first  session  stations  were  estab- 
lished in  Tokyo,  Yokohama,  Nagasaki,  and  Hakodate. 
The  early  years  of  the  mission  were  difficult.  In  1883, 
revival  power  was  manifest,  beginning  in  their  schools. 
Growth  was  then  more  rapid  until  1888,  when  the  con- 
servative tide  set  in  throughout  Japan  and  opposition 
increased.  In  1898,  the  one  mission  was  divided  into 
two  Conferences,  West  Japan  and  East  Japan.  The  mis- 
sionaries maintain  their  organization,  working  in  co- 
operation in  evangelistic  work  with  the  Japan  Methodist 
Church,  and  conducting  independently  school  work  and 
publishing  work. 

The  Methodist  Protestant  Mission  began  its  work  in 
Japan  in  1880.  The  first  missionary  was  Miss  Harriet 
Britain ;  the  second,  Fred  C.  Klein.  Besides  the  Nagoya, 
the  principal  centre  of  the  work  where  they  have  a  col- 
lege, there  are  stations  at  Tokyo,  Yokohama,  Shizuoka, 
and  Hammatsu.  In  Yokohama  there  is  a  girls'  school 
and  a  boys'  English  school.  There  are  three  kinder- 
gartens and  an  enrollment  of  three  thousand  in  the  Sun- 
day Schools. 

The  Methodist  Church  (South)  Mission  was  started 
in  1886.  It  has  stations  at  Kobe,  Osaka,  Kyoto,  Oka- 
yama,  Hiroshima,  Miyaichi,  Nakatsu,  Oita,  Uwajima, 
and  Matsuyama.  They  have  a  girls'  school  at  Hiro- 
shima and  at  Kobe  a   Bible  women's  training  school, 


218  THE  KINGDOM 

a  large  evening  school,  and  half-interest  in  the  Kwansei 
Gakuin  with  theological  college  and  academic  depart- 
ments. 

The  Methodist  Church  (Canadian)  Mission  was 
strategically  located  in  the  very  heart  of  the  main  island 
of  Japan.  From  the  start  they  have  had  a  number  of 
educational  institutions,  as  well  as  orphanages  at  Kana- 
zawa  and  Shizuoka.  Their  Central  Tabernacle  in  Tokyo 
has  been  a  great  centre  for  all  kinds  of  lectures  and  edu- 
cational meetings.  The  recent  expansion  of  this  mission 
is  the  result  of  a  visit  of  T.  E.  E.  Shore,  the  general 
secretary  of  the  Board,  who  came  to  Japan  to  plan  for 
retrenchment,  but  changed  his  views  after  careful  and 
deliberate  examination  of  conditions  on  the  field. 

The  Oriental  Missionary  Society,  established  in  1900, 
gives  special  attention  to  the  training  of  a  native  min- 
istry. About  two  hundred  evangelists  have  been  trained 
and  about  thirty  stations  have  been  opened.  It  has  Bible 
training  institutes  in  Tokyo  and  Seoul.  The  city  mis- 
sion halls  of  the  society,  which  are  open  every  night  of 
the  year,  give  a  practical  training  ground  for  their  Bible 
students  and  many  souls  have  been  won.  The  society 
aims  at  a  widespread  diffusion  of  Gospel  literature,  and 
they  have  undertaken  to  put  a  Scripture  portion  and  a 
Gospel  tract  into  every  home  in  Japan. 

The  Omi  Mission,  which  began  with  William  Vories, 
has  grown  to  number  five  Americans  and  sixteen  Japa- 
nese workers.  They  have  nine  buildings.  A  Gospel 
launch  is  being  built  and  a  training  school,  a  kinder- 
garten, a  sanitarium,  and  several  other  works  are  pro- 
jected. It  aims  "  to  demonstrate  the  possibility  of 
co-operation  and  union  efforts  among  different  denomina- 
tions and  races  of  Christians."  Mr.  Vories  was  formerly 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  English  teacher  in  the  city  of  Omi.  Forty 
per  cent  of  the  students  joined  his  Bible  classes  and 
forty  per  cent  of  the  graduating  classes  were  baptized. 
Buddhistic  persecution  arose  and  he  was  driven  out  of 


DIFFERENT  MISSIONS  AT  WORK      219 

the  school,  into  his  present  work.    It  was  a  sorry  day  for 
the  Buddhists  when  they  opposed  Vories. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United  States  founded 
their  mission  in  Japan  through  Dr.  J.  C.  Hepburn,  in 
1859.  It  now  numbers  seventy-two  members,  of  whom 
thirty  are  unmarried  women.  The  mission  has  mission- 
aries located  in  Tokyo,  Osaka,  Kyoto,  Kanazawa,  Fukui, 
Tsu,  Asahigawa,  Wakayama,  Tanabe,  Hiroshima,  Kobe, 
Tokuyama,  Yamaguchi,  Otaru,  Sapporo  Dairen,  Ryuzan, 
Port  Arthur.  It  carries  on  five  high  schools  for  girls 
and  young  women,  a  training  school  for  men  and  one 
for  women,  a  number  of  primary  schools  and  kinder- 
gartens. In  union  with  the  Reformed  Church  in  Amer- 
ica, it  carries  on  the  Meiji  Gakuin,  which  comprises  a 
high  school  for  boys,  a  higher,  and  a  theological  depart- 
ment. In  company  with  the  missions  of  the  other  Pres- 
byterian and  Reformed  Churches,  it  is  connected  with 
the  Nihon  Christo  Kyokwai  (Church  of  Christ  in  Japan). 

The  Presbyterian  Church  (Southern)  opened  its  mis- 
sion in  Japan,  in  1885,  with  the  coming  of  R.  B.  Grinnan 
and  R.  E.  McAlpine.  After  visiting  Nagoya  and  Kochi, 
they  chose  the  latter  city  for  the  centre  of  the  mission's 
labours.  Emphasis  has  always  been  placed  upon  direct 
evangelism.  They  have  founded  a  theological  school  in 
Kobe,  a  girls'  school  at  Nagoya,  and  an  industrial  school 
for  girls  in  Kochi,  where  there  is  a  large  and  prosperous 
church.  Their  missionaries  are  living  in  seven  cities, 
around  which  a  large  work  is  being  done. 

The  Reformed  Church  in  America  (Dutch  Reformed) 
Mission  has  a  glorious  and  renowned  history.  It  began 
in  1859  with  the  arrival  of  Brown,  Verbeck,  and  Sim- 
mons at  Nagasaki  and  Yokohama.  The  mission  labours 
in  parts  of  Kyushu  and  the  Provinces  of  Izu,  Shinshu, 
Morioka,  and  Aomori. 

The  Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States  (German 
Reformed)  Mission  began  in  Tokyo,  in  1879,  with  the 
arrival  of  A.  D.  Gring  and  wife.    Their  staff  of  thirty 


220  THE  KINGDOM 

missionaries  are  mostly  located  in  Sendai,  where  is  lo- 
cated their  Miyagi  Girls*  School  and  North  Japan  Col- 
lege. In  evangelistic  lines  they  have  fifty-one  out-sta- 
tions, thirty-one  evangelists,  and  twelve  Bible  women. 

The  Friends'  Mission  work  centres  around  their  girls' 
school  in  Tokyo  and  the  Friends'  Meeting-House  on  the 
school  grounds.  A  number  of  Friends  reside  in  Tokyo, 
who,  though  not  missionaries,  contribute  to  Christian 
work.  There  are  six  evangelistic  points  near  the  city 
of  Mito.  The  Association  of  Friends  outside  Japan  have 
planned  to  develop  an  anti-tuberculosis  settlement. 

The  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  began 
its  work  in  Japan,  in  1873,  in  Tokyo,  W.  B.  Wright  and 
H.  C.  Shaw  being  the  first  missionaries.  In  1876  H.  J. 
Foss  and  F.  B.  Plummer  arrived  and  opened  a  new 
mission  in  Kobe.  Since  then  the  society  has  opened 
work  in  a  large  number  of  cities  and  towns.  In  1877 
they  started  work  in  the  Bonin  Islands,  where  there  is 
now  a  flourishing  church  with  a  handsome  church  build- 
ing. The  Guild  of  St.  Paul,  which  was  founded  by 
Bishop  Bickersteth,  works  in  close  connection  with  the 
Community  Missions  of  St.  Andrews  and  St.  Hilda.  In 
Tokyo  there  is  an  orphanage,  a  girls'  high  school,  and 
several  other  institutions.  In  Kobe  there  is  a  girls'  high 
school  and  a  school  for  English-speaking  boys. 

The  Seventh  Day  Adventists'  Mission  was  opened  by 
Elder  Granger  and  Mr.  Okihara,  who  came  from  Cali- 
fornia. They  opened  work  at  Yoyogi,  a  suburb  of 
Tokyo.  The  mission  plans  to  erect  several  buildings  for 
the  accommodation  of  their  work  and  workers.  They 
have  made  a  specialty  of  tent  meetings,  which  they  have 
held  in  various  cities  of  Japan. 

The  United  Brethren  have  baptized  a  thousand  people. 
They  have  fourteen  Japanese  pastors  and  three  mission- 
ary families.  Their  theological  students  are  sent  to 
Doshisha  University,  where  they  co-operate  by  furnishing 
one  foreign  and  one  Japanese  teacher. 


DIFFERENT  MISSIONS  AT  WORK      221 

The  Universalists  started  their  work  in  1890.  Their 
Blackmer  Girls'  Home  is  located  near  the  Woman's  Uni- 
versity. The  church  membership  is  about  five  hundred. 
The  superintendent,  G.  I.  Keirn,  travels  extensively,  lec- 
turing and  distributing  literature.  Within  three  years 
he  has  passed  out  four  hundred  thousand  tracts. 

The  Yotsuya  Mission  consists  of  W.  D.  Cunningham 
and  wife  and  twelve  Japanese  workers.  They  have  six 
Sunday  Schools  and  six  preaching  places  in  the  city  of 
Tokyo.  Their  Tokyo  Christian  has  a  large  circulation 
in  the  United  States.  There  have  been  254  baptisms 
since  1902. 

The  Zoshigaya  Mission  was  opened  by  J.  M.  Mc- 
Caleb,  who  came  to  Japan  in  1892.  He  has,  besides  his 
evangelistic  work,  a  student's  hostel  in  Tokyo,  which 
accommodates  about  forty.  He  and  other  missionaries 
associated  with  him  are  sustained  by  offerings  from 
churches  mostly  in  the  Southern  States. 


VII 
CHRISTIAN    EDUCATION 


'  We  Japanese  should  fully  appreciate  the  debt  our  civilization 
owes  to  Christian  missionaries  in  the  education  of  our  girls. 
This  great  contribution  should  be  written  in  full  in  the  history 
of  the  new  Japanese  civilization. — Sekiji  Nishtyama,  The  Open 
Court,  July,  191 1. 

There  must  be  a  succession  of  highly  trained  Christian 
scholars,  such  as  are  supplied  by  a  great  university  and  are 
found  in  it,  who  would  co-operate  with  and  encourage  one 
another.  If  they  could  not  fight  the  battle  successfully,  who 
could?  We  must  get  hold  of  the  thought-life  of  the  nation, 
and  a  Christian  university  is  necessary  to  accomplish  it. — T.  H. 
Haden,  "  A  Christian  University  for  Japan,"  p.  13. 

The  ideal  for  Christian  education  in  Japan  is  that  it  should 
be  abreast  with  government  education  in  buildings  and  equip- 
ment, teaching  force,  and  in  scientific  method.  In  addition,  it 
should  be  pervaded  by  the  Christian  spirit  in  such  a  way  that 
the  product  of  the  schools  may  be  a  noble,  active,  efficient  Chris- 
tian manhood  that  will  be  a  power  in  guiding  the  destiny  of  the 
nation. — D.  B.  Schneder. 

In  1871  the  Tokyo  Girls'  School  was  established,  and  in  1874 
the  Girls'  Normal  School,  known  as  the  Ochanomizu  School; 
both  of  these  were  planned  by  Viscount  Tanaka.  This  is  really 
the  beginning  of  girls'  education  in  Japan.  The  field  of  women's 
education  was  opened  up  and  tilled  by  missionaries.  Then  came 
Viscount  Tanaka  and  sowed  the  seed.  Even  after  it  had 
germinated  and  started  to  grow,  missionaries  cultivated  it  side 
by  side  with  the  Government. — Prof.  Rikitaro  Fujisawa,  The 
Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  341. 

The  services  of  Christian  schools  to  society  at  large  and  the 
Christian  Church,  have  been  abundant  and  valuable.  .  .  .  Their 
influence  has  inspired  the  new  literature  of  Japan,  has  vitalized 
its  new  civiHzation  with  spiritual  ideas,  and  has  been  prevailingly 
on  the  side  of  righteousness  and  purity  in  national,  family,  and 
private  life.  Christian  education  has  given  birth  to  the  Christian 
Church,  has  supplied  it  with  leaders,  literature,  and  hymnology, 
and  has  made  possible  well-nigh  every  form  of  its  manifold 
activities.— Albertus  Pieters,  The  Christian  Movement,  1910, 
p.  169. 


VII 

CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION 

A  SCHOOL  is  an  arsenal  where  raw  material 
called  brains  is  worked  over  into  machines  for 
the  discharge  of  ideas.  Each  brain  is  given  its 
own  melting  pot.  Not  every  casting  is  a  success  and 
some  fine-looking  machines  are  chiefly  engaged  gather- 
ing dust  and  rust.  Some  machines  make  a  lot  of  noise, 
firing  in  all  directions,  but  seldom  hitting  a  mark.  But 
most  of  them  do  good  service  as  field  guns  or  rapid  firers. 
Not  a  few  come  out,  the  long-range  type,  with  a  sixteen- 
inch  bore,  and  rip  great  rents  in  the  redoubts  of  ig- 
norance and  shatter  the  castles  of  superstition,  folly,  and 
fear.  Idolatry,  graft,  special  privilege,  despotism,  lust, 
vanity,  intemperance,  and  the  war-demon  have  no  concern 
for  popguns — even  a  ship-load  of  them.  What  they  hate 
and  fear  are  these  long-rangers,  men  who  fire  ideas 
weighing  a  ton  or  more  and  who  will  not  be  silenced. 
And  these  are  the  kind  of  men,  Japanese  men,  the  Church 
needs  in  Japan.  To  make  them  we  must  have  a  great 
Christian  university  with  an  endowment  of  several  mil- 
lion dollars.  This  need  is  the  paramount  need  of  Chris- 
tian education  in  Japan  to-day. 

In  a  country  like  Japan,  Christian  schools  are  not  only 
a  necessity,  they  are  the  pillars  and  the  foundation  stones 
of  the  great  Christian  temple.  When  one  considers  that 
Japan  has  a  literature  dating  back  more  than  a  thousand 
years,  and  customs  and  intellectual  bents  which  antedate 
the  creation  of  its  literature,  the  need  of  Christian  schools 
to  change  the  thought  of  life,  to  anchor  new  ideas  and 
ideals,  is  both  urgent  and  beyond  controversy.  Fortu- 
nately for  Christian  missions  in  Japan,  in  less  than  ten 

825 


S26  THE  KINGDOM 

years  after  the  establishment  of  the  first  church,  several 
schools  for  boys  and  girls  were  established,  which  have 
grown  to  encouraging  proportions.  From  these  schools 
have  gone  forth  men  and  women  who  to-day  are  leaders 
and  champions  of  the  Cross  in  Japan. 

Since  the  beginning,  about  25,000  boys  and  as  many 
girls  have  received  Christian  education  in  Japan.  Of 
the  graduates,  fifty  per  cent  of  the  boys  and  eighty  per 
cent  of  the  girls  have  gone  out  Christians.*  There  are 
about  one  hundred  Christian  schools  in  Japan  for  both 
sexes  above  the  elementary  grade,  with  about  10,000 
students  against  600,000  in  the  governmental  schools 
above  the  elementary  grades. 

There  was  a  time  when  Christian  schools  made  a 
good  showing  because  of  manifest  efficiency.  They 
attracted  students  who  had  ability,  not  because  of 
Christianity  but  in  spite  of  it.  But  alas,  Christian  schools 
have  not  advanced  with  the  advance  of  the  people 
and  the  governmental  schools.f  There  is  better  equip- 
ment in  the  governmental  schools  and  very  able  teachers. 
Not  only  does  the  Government  pay  a  comparatively  high 
salary,  but  at  the  end  of  fifteen  years  any  governmental 
teacher  or  school  official  can  draw  a  pension  of  twenty- 
five  per  cent  of  his  salary  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  If 
the  Government  were  ever  so  friendly  toward  Christian 

*  See  Splendid  Review  of  Christian  Education  in  Japan,  by 
D.  B.  Schneder,  The  Christian  Movement,  1912. 

t "  If  the  falling  behind  of  the  Christian  schools  is  not 
checked,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  within  twenty  years 
Christian  scholarship  will  be  an  inconsiderable  factor  in  the 
thought  and  higher  life  of  the  nation." — President  Tasuki  Hara- 
da,  Japan  Evangelist,  November,  1912,  p.  533.  "Alongside  of  the 
large  Government  system  with  its  thousands  of  students,  a  com- 
paratively small  number  of  Christian  schools,  often  with  ill- 
adapted  buildings  and  insufficient  equipment,  cut  a  very  small 
figure  indeed,  and  exert  correspondingly  little  influence  on  the 
trend  of  the  national  Government." — B.  D.  Schneder,  Japan 
Evangelist,  November,  1912,  p.  532. 


CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  227 

schools,  some  discrimination  against  them  would  have 
to  be  made  because^  owing  to  limited  funds,  they  have 
failed  to  keep  abreast  of  the  times.  A  mission  school 
which  can  furnish  better  teachers  and  equipment  than 
a  secular  school  should  be  taxed  to  its  full  capacity. 

If  Japan  were  a  wealthy  nation,  the  opportunities  for 
Christian  education  would  be  limited  to  students  who  are 
Christians  or  friends  of  the  Church,  but  owing  to  the 
necessity  of  foreign  loans  and  limited  resources,  the  Gov- 
ernment can  scarcely  build  enough  schools  to  overtake 
the  growing  population  and  advance  in  the  science  of 
education.  What,  therefore,  is  a  national  loss  is  a  gain 
for  the  Christian  schools.  Instead  of  retrenchment, 
Christian  educators  should  advance  and  improve  the  op- 
portunities which  God  has  given  them  in  Japan.  Dr. 
Okada,  Minister  of  Education,  is  quoted  as  saying: 
"  Japan  possesses  a  public  debt  amounting  to  Y2,ooo,- 
000,000,  and  is  in  financial  distress.  I  think  it  is  most 
necessary,  therefore,  to  encourage  private  educational  in- 
stitutions so  that  these  may  be  able  to  supplement  the 
Government  schools." 

A  Japanese  college  president  says  :  "  There  is  nothing 
at  this  juncture  in  which  the  friends  of  missions  in 
America  and  Great  Britain  can  do  a  greater  service  to 
Christianity  in  Japan  than  by  liberal  aid  in  the  establish- 
ment of  well-equipped  and  as  far  as  possible,  sufficiently 
endowed  Christian  educational  institutions  of  a  higher 
grade."  * 

Though  there  is  great  need  for  the  enlargement  of 
Christian  education,  it  is  encouraging  that  the  last  ten 
years  have  seen  a  hundred  per  cent  development  in  the 
schools  of  school  attendance.  Albertus  Pieters,  an  au- 
thority on  the  subject,  gives  the  names  of  twenty  leading 
papers  and  magazines  which  have  editors-in-chief  or 
assistant  editors  who  have  graduated  from  Christian 
schools.     He  says  of  the  graduates  of  Protestant  schools  : 

♦President  K.  libuka,  The  Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  307. 


SaS  THE  KINGDOM 

*'  Three  per  cent  are  in  the  ministry  or  in  some  other 
form  of  Christian  effort,  twelve  per  cent  are  teachers, 
five  per  cent  officials,  twenty-eight  per  cent  business  men, 
farmers,  etc."  * 

Sometimes  the  friends  of  foreign  mission  work  object 
to  the  large  sums  expended  in  education  and  advocate 
exclusive  effort  to  evangelistic  effort.  It  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  the  object  of  every  Christian  school  in 
Japan  is  primarily  the  spread  or  establishment  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  A  Japanese  ministry  must  be  pro- 
vided and  Japanese  leaders  must  be  won  and  educated. 
No  missionary  thinks  of  going  to  the  field  without  a 
thorough  education.  Much  more  in  a  land  where  Bud- 
dhists have  their  own  schools  up  to  their  university  must 
there  be  a  constituency  of  Christians  who  have  been 
trained  in  an  educational  atmosphere  and  educated  out  of 
much  that  is  old  and  false  into  the  truth  which  is  ever 
new.  One  thing  is  very  noticeable  in  Japan  to-day,  that 
the  missions  which  were  late  in  establishing  their  schools 
have  few  self-supporting  churches  and  few  great  leaders. 
On  the  contrary,  missions  which  for  a  generation  have 
had  their  schools,  have  grown  in  the  number  of  converts, 
the  number  of  independent  churches,  and  with  a  just 
pride  can  point  to  eminent  spirits  which  would  be  an 
honour  to  any  nation.  From  the  very  beginning,  special 
attention  has  been  given  to  the  training  of  men  and 
women  for  Christian  work.  There  are  17  training 
schools  for  Bible  women,  having  243  students.  There 
are  455  boys  preparing  for  the  ministry.  One  school 
worthy  of  special  mention  is  the  Theological  School 
founded  by  Masashisa  Uemura,  in  1904.  Nothing  could 
be  more  ideal  and  encouraging  than  for  a  Japanese  min- 
ister himself  to  be  the  inspiring  cause  and  trainer  of 
other  ministers,  and  to  manage  his  school  solely  with 
Japanese  teachers  and  Japanese  gifts,  as  is  the  case  with 
this  school. 
*  The  Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  160. 


CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  229 

Schools  for  boys  are  divided  into  eighteen  middle 
schools,  six  higher  or  collegiate  courses,  twenty-three 
theological  and  Bible  training  schools,  and  two  schools 
have  courses  which  give  them  the  rank  of  universities, 
namely,  Rikkyo  University,  sustained  by  the  American 
Episcopalians,  and  Doshisha  University,  whose  begin- 
nings were  with  Neesima  and  the  American  Board. 
There  are  twice  as  many  schools  for  girls  as  for  boys, 
there  being  but  one  Christian  school  for  young  men  north 
of  Tokyo,  and  none  between  Kobe  and  Nagasaki.  The 
most  flourishing  schools  for  boys  are  the  middle  schools, 
which  have  a  course  of  five  years  which  follows  the  six 
or  eight  years  spent  in  elementary  schools.  One  of  the 
latest  middle  school  plants  is  the  well-equipped  school 
of  the  Lutherans  at  Kumamoto,  designed  for  400 
students.  They  had,  at  the  opening,  255  applicants  where 
they  could  accommodate  but  100. 

Among  the  most  noted  boys'  schools  may  be  mentioned 
the  Doshisha  at  Kyoto.  It  has  likewise  a  school  for 
girls.  Both  schools  have  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Japanese  and  are  managed  and  are  being  enlarged  with 
great  success.*  There  are  over  1,000  students  in  both 
schools  and  twenty-five  acres  in  the  school's  grounds. 

The  Kwansei  Gakuin,  in  the  city  of  Kobe,  is  situated 
on  a  beautiful  site  of  twenty-three  acres  overlooking 
the  sea;  $150,000  is  being  spent  in  the  enlargement  of 

♦The  alumni  of  Doshisha  have  recently  subscribed  $150,327 
towards  endowment,  and  $15,000  towards  the  running  expenses. 
On  the  walls  of  the  president's  room  at  Doshisha  is  the  follow- 
ing autograph  letter  from  ex-President  Roosevelt,  written  at 
Sagamore  Hill,  December  25,  1910:  "I  send  Christmas  greetings 
to  the  students  of  Doshisha  College,  and  I  sincerely  wish  all 
success  in  life  for  them  and  for  the  gallant  nation  of  which  they 
are  citizens.  May  they  keep  the  old  virtues  of  Japan  at  the  same 
time  that  they  gain  the  new  virtues  demanded  by  Japan's  new 
position  as  one  of  the  leading  nations  of  civilized  mankind. 
Courage  and  integrity,  gentleness  and  strength,  good  judgment 
and  patient  perseverance,  may  all  these  qualities  be  theirs." 


230  THE  KINGDOM 

the  school;  $27,500  was  spent  on  their  new  middle 
school  building.  Any  visitor  at  this  school,  walking 
over  the  newly  laid  Oregon  pine  floors,  will  be  im- 
pressed that  the  directors  believe  in  Japan  and  its  edu- 
cational opportunities. 

The  North  Japan  College  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  the  United  States,  at  Sendai,  was  established  in  1886. 
Its  middle  school  department  meets  in  a  magnificent 
school  building  and  has  more  applicants  than  can  be 
accommodated.  A  peculiar  responsibility  and  oppor- 
tunity is  bestowed  upon  this  school,  as  it  is  the  only 
Christian  institution  for  young  men  in  all  of  northern 
Japan. 

The  Aoyama  Gakuin,  now  managed  by  the  Japan 
Methodist  Church,  had  its  beginnings  in  1878.  It  has 
a  magnificent  school  campus  and  a  good  equipment  for 
the  850  boys  and  girls  who  are  in  the  school.  The  Gov- 
ernment has  recognized  the  worth  of  its  collegiate  depart- 
ment in  giving  its  graduates  in  English  teachers'  licenses 
without  examination,  a  favour  likewise  shown  the 
Doshisha. 

Rikkyo  Gakuin  had  its  beginnings  in  a  school  for  cate- 
chists,  established  by  Bishop  Williams,  in  1878.  The 
middle  school  is  in  a  flourishing  condition,  owing  in 
part  to  its  location  in  the  thickly  populated  part  of 
Tokyo  and  its  thorough  equipment.  A  large  tract  of 
land  has  been  purchased  at  Ikebukuro,  North  Tokyo, 
whither  the  University  and  theological  departments  will 
be  removed. 

The  Meiji  Gakuin  of  Tokyo  had  its  beginnings  in 
schools  taught  by  James  H.  Ballagh,  Dr.  S.  R.  Brown, 
John  C.  Ballagh,  and  M.  N.  Wyckoff  in  Yokohama, 
and  therefore  may  be  called  the  oldest  Christian  school 
for  boys  in  Japan.  After  the  school  was  moved  to  Tokyo 
the  boys  were  dressed  in  grey  suits  with  brass  buttons. 
It  was  the  first  school  to  use  a  uniform.  Bishop  Honda, 
Uemura,  libuka,  and  Kumano  are  well-known  Christian 


CHRISTIAN  EDUCATION  231 

leaders  who  were  won  through  these  missionaries  or 
their  schools.  The  Meiji  Gakuin  has  turned  out  a  number 
of  excellent  and  influential  men. 

A  former  daimyo  (a  feudal  governor)  said  to  a  mis- 
sionary :  "  Your  preaching  and  schools  for  boys  are  good, 
but  if  you  have  the  welfare  of  our  country  at  heart, 
you  will  educate  our  women."  There  is  a  wide  gulf 
intellectually  between  the  men  and  women  of  Japan,  one 
reason  being  the  lack  of  higher  education  for  girls.  To 
Miss  Mary  E.  Kidder,  a  missionary  of  the  Reformed 
Church  in  America,  belongs  the  honour  of  founding  the 
first  Christian  school  for  girls  in  Japan.  In  1870,  she 
received  six  girls,  four  of  whom  had  previously  been 
taught  by  Mrs.  J.  C.  Hepburn,  and  opened  her  day 
school  at  Iseyama,  Yokohama. 

Beyond  the  primary  grades,  four  years  is  about  all 
the  education  the  daughters  of  the  well-to-do  families 
receive.  In  spite  of  conservatism  and  the  social  order 
which  underrates  female  education  in  Japan,  the  eco- 
nomic situation  is  driving  girls  and  women  from  their 
retirement  to  various  professions  and  ways  of  labour. 
In  meeting  the  competition  of  men  who  have  the  ad- 
vantages both  of  education  and  the  partiality  shown  mas- 
culinity in  Japan,  the  woman  who  must  earn  her  way 
must  be  educated.  If  female  education  is  necessary  for 
success  financially,  much  could  be  said  for  the  moral 
and  Christian  education  of  the  girls  who  are  to  be  the 
teachers  and  mothers  of  the  millions  yet  to  be  born. 

A  man  on  the  train  said  to  a  missionary's  friend : 
"  That  girl  yonder  has  attended  a  Christian  school."  He 
was  asked  how  he  knew,  and  he  replied :  "  I  can  tell  by 
her  actions.  She  has  the  carriage,  the  modesty,  and 
the  grace  of  all  such  girls."  Girls  from  Christian  schools 
go  forth  to  be  teachers,  Bible  women,  wives,  and  min- 
isters, and  mothers  whose  children  are  nourished  in  the 
Christian  faith.  The  time  has  come  when  a  "  College 
for  the  Christian  Higher  Education  of  Women  in  Japan  " 


232  THE  KINGDOM 

is  greatly  needed.  Just  as  a  great  Christian  University 
is  needed  for  men,  so  such  a  school  would  open  up  larger 
fields  for  service  and  increase  the  power  and  reach  of 
women  who  have  both  ability  and  consecration. 

One  of  the  noted  schools  for  women  is  Kobe  College, 
founded  by  the  American  Board  in  1875.  For  the  last 
twenty  years  Miss  Susan  A.  Searle  has  been  its  presi- 
dent. After  the  course  in  the  academy  of  five  years, 
there  is  a  regular  college  course  of  four  years.  The 
school  grounds  occupy  a  beautiful  and  valuable  site  in 
the  heart  of  the  city.  The  buildings  are  attractive  and 
well  arranged. 

The  largest  girls'  school  is  at  Hiroshima,  superintended 
by  Miss  N.  B.  Gaines.  Counting  the  pupils  from  the 
kindergarten  up,  there  are  808,  all  told.  There  are  42 
teachers,  7  of  whom  are  foreign.  The  school  has  a 
splendid  kindergarten  training  department  for  teachers. 
The  beginnings  of  the  school  were  in  a  Buddhist  temple, 
with  a  class  of  ten  pupils. 

The  women  of  Japan  are  making  a  valuable  contribu- 
tion to  the  establishment  of  the  church  through  their 
work  in  elementary  schools  and  kindergartens.  All  told 
there  are  8,757  httle  children  in  these  day  schools  and 
kindergartens.  Miss  Mary  Rioch  has  for  years  con- 
ducted one  of  these  day  schools  in  Tokyo.  About  300 
children  are  in  daily  touch  with  Christian  influence.  The 
origin  of  the  school,  as  many  of  its  kind,  was  with  a 
woman's  heart  wrenched  by  the  faces  of  little  tots  grow- 
ing up  amidst  poverty  and  ignorance.  There  are  62 
kindergartens  in  Japan.  The  first  was  organized  by  the 
Presbyterians  in  Kanazawa  in  1885.  One  of  these  little 
kindergarten  girls  coming  out  of  a  temple  was  asked  by 
her  teacher  if  she  gave  money  to  the  idols.  Her  reply 
was :  "  No !  I  gave  a  sen  to  a  poor  man.  I  wouldn't  give 
anything  to  those  stones.  I  am  very  little,  but  if  two 
or  three  of  us  pushed  at  once  we  could  tumble  them 
down." 


VIII 
UNITY   AND   CO-OPERATION 


There  are  men  and  women  who  will  unite  on  a  particular 
thing  who  will  not  consent  to  unite  for  the  whole  program. — 
Raymond  Robins,  Tokyo  Address,  February  ii,  1913. 

It  is  only  on  the  basis  of  the  New  Testament  that  there  is 
any  hope  of  ultimate  reunion  amongst  the  divided  parts  of  the 
Christian  Church.— Bishop  P.  K.  Fyson. 

Unless  we  get  together  and  teach  Protestant  Christianity  to 
work  together  like  one  body  upon  our  common  problems,  we  are 
all  of  us  going  to  get  whipped  in  the  end. — Fred  B.  Smith,  Tokyo 
Address,  February  11,  1913. 

The  practical  power  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
on  foreign  soil  is  recognized  by  the  Church,  and  by  foreign  gov- 
ernments, as  of  a  value  clear  beyond  calculation  or  statement.— 
S.  D.  Gordon,  "  Quiet  Talks  to  World  Winners,"  p.  142. 

On  one  occasion  a  Presbyterian,  an  Anglican,  and  a  Baptist 
went  to  a  wealthy  Methodist  to  ask  him  to  increase  his  sub- 
scription. Imagine  a  Methodist  up  against  that  kind  of  combina- 
tion !  .  .  .  Only  one  thing  could  happen  and  that  thing  hap- 
pened. He  gave  a  magnificent  subscription  to  missions. — 
Echoes  from  Edinburgh,  1910,  p.  191. 

You  cannot  express  adequately  a  one  God  in  a  divided  church. 
If  you  and  I  are  to  make  known  the  unity  of  God,  the  unity 
of  the  human  family,  the  unity  of  the  Christian  Church,  the 
unity  of  the  Gospel  of  the  world,  we  need  a  great  and  noble  and 
adequate  symbol  that  adequately  embodies  the  Christian  con- 
ception.— Robert  E.  Speer. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  the  Church  was  a  unit.  All  thought  and 
spoke  the  same  things.  But  that  was  not  a  unity  of  life  and 
of  intelligent  loyalty  to  Christ.  It  was  the  unity  of  the  grave- 
yard, where  all  the  heads  and  all  the  feet  are  turned  in  the 
same  direction.  .  .  .  There  is  room  for  thought  and  opinion ;  the 
truth  is,  we  cannot  be  true  to  Christ  and  permit  others  to  think 
for  us.  .  .  .  Our  ground  of  unity  is  in  Him  and  not  in  our 
opinions  or  in  our  reasoning  processes. — Archibald  McLean, 
"  Where  the  Book  Speaks,"  p.  233. 


VIII 

UNITY  AND  CO-OPERATION 

"  "I^T  EITHER  for  these  only  do  I  pray,  but  for  them 
j^^  also  that  believe  on  me  through  their  word; 
-i-  ^  that  they  may  all  be  one ;  as  thou  Father  art  in 
me  and  I  in  thee ;  that  they  also  may  be  in  us :  that 
the  world  may  believe  that  thou  didst  send  me."  Thus 
did  our  Saviour  pray  but  a  few  hours  before  He  was 
crucified.  The  drawing  power  of  the  One  who  was 
lifted  up  seems  to  have  been  conditioned  upon  the  unity, 
the  oneness  of  those  who  believe  and  the  preaching  of 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature.  The  world  as  a  whole 
does  not  believe  in  Him.  The  reasons,  however,  are 
clear — the  divisions  of  the  Church  and  her  failure  to 
forget  herself  in  the  passion  to  exalt  and  proclaim  her 
Lord. 

Whether  it  be  a  lot  of  ants  working  together  in  a 
forest  or  a  lot  of  men  inspired  by  a  great  national  inter- 
est, there  is  power  in  unity.  And  this  power  is  ac- 
celerated just  as  we  rise  from  mere  animal  or  intel- 
lectual life  to  the  realm  of  the  spiritual.  Missionaries 
and  mission  work  have  given  the  whole  Christian  world 
a  new  vision  of  the  need  and  the  power  of  unity.  Not 
that  the  missionary  deserves  any  credit;  the  movement 
for  unity  is  of  necessity  laid  upon  him.  At  the  gathering 
of  the  delegates  to  the  World's  Student  Christian  Fed- 
eration in  Tokyo,  Mayor  Ozaki  said :  "  Whereas,  you 
delegates  gathered  here  from  twenty-five  nations,  despite 
differences  of  language,  race,  and  nationality,  are  one  in 
heart,  one  in  purpose — one  in  every  sense;  brothers 
could  not  be  more  united.  As  for  this  wonderful  unity, 
we   outsiders    know    not   how    to    emulate    it,    but   we 

235 


236  THE  KINGDOM 

humble  ourselves  and  show  our  deep  respect  for  you 
all."  * 

The  failure  of  a  larger  union  from  the  very  start  of 
the  work  in  Japan  was  due  not  so  much  to  the  Japanese 
or  the  missionaries  as  to  the  fact  that  churches  and  their 
representative  boards  at  home  opposed  a  wholesale  let- 
ting down  of  denominational  bars.  To  this  day  it  goes 
without  saying  that  a  larger  union  of  Christian  forces 
in  Japan  would  obtain  were  it  not  for  the  same  con- 
servatism and  reluctance  to  yield  on  the  part  of  each 
denominational  constituency  in  the  home  land. 

The  Japanese,  as  a  rule,  are  not  much  befuddled  by 
the  differences  presented  by  the  different  churches,  f  In 
fact  the  differences  are  not  pressed  to  the  front.  It  is 
quite  a  difficult  task  for  the  missionary  or  the  Japanese 
preacher  to  lead  a  soul  out  of  a  labyrinth  of  Oriental 
philosophy,  out  of  the  negation  of  Buddhism  into  the 
clear  and  strait  way  that  leads  to  the  Cross.  There 
is  an  exhaustion  attending  this  effort,  a  joy  in  victory, 
and  a  solicitude  for  the  future  development  of  the  con- 
vert that  presses  Christ  to  the  front  and  directs  the  be- 
liever solely  to  Christ.  There  is  no  desire  or  occasion 
to  press  denominational  distinctions  in  theology.  The 
missionaries  of  the  churches  are  thrown  into  very  close 
contact.  The  Japanese  preachers  likewise  from  national 
instinct  band  together.  The  mighty  host  of  sin  and  idol- 
atry is  so  numerous  that  like  an  army  in  action  there 
is  no  time  for  any  unnecessary  baggage,  nor  is  there  time 
for  aught  save  vigilance,  defence,  and  attack  against 
error  and  unbelief. 

♦World's  Student  Christian  Federation  Conference,  1907,  p. 
177. 

t  It  will  not  be  at  all  surprising  if  new  sects  spring  up  in 
Japan.  The  fertile  mind  and  independent  spirit  of  the  Japanese 
will  be  sorely  tempted  to  go  the  way  of  all  Christian  history. 
But  such  Christian  bodies  will  be  of  their  own  making  and  will 
grow  out  of  their  own  psychical  bent  and  from  their  own 
religious  experience. 


UNITY  AND  CO-OPERATION  237 

The  first  Protestant  church  organized  in  Japan  was 
through  Presbyterian  influence,  yet  the  church  members 
adopted  the  following  statement :  "  Our  church  is  not 
partial  to  any  sect,  believing  only  in  the  name  of  Christ 
in  whom  all  are  one,  and  believing  that  all  who  take  the 
Bible  as  their  guide,  diligently  studying  it,  are  Christ's 
servants  and  our  brothers.  For  this  reason  all  believers 
on  earth  belong  to  Christ's  family  of  brotherly  love."  * 
The  same  year  (1872)  at  a  convention  of  missionaries  in 
Yokohama,  a  resolution  was  adopted  which  was  re- 
markable for  its  manifest  and  bold  stand  for  Christian 
unity. 

The  above-mentioned  church  took  as  its  name,  the 
"  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan,"  which  its  sister  churches 
still  retain.  The  first  churches  established  by  the  Amer- 
ican Board  were  given  the  name  "  The  Church  of 
Christ."  The  churches  established  by  the  Disciples  have 
always  been  given  the  same  name.  The  Japanese 
churches  which  were  established  by  the  different  missions 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  have  all  been  united  into  a 
compact  corporate  body.  The  same  is  true  of  three 
Methodist  churches  and  all  churches  of  the  Anglican 
faith.  The  missions  represented  by  these  three  bodies 
are  therefore  necessarily  brought  close  together  and  are 
practically  one  in  Japan.  Missions  of  other  churches 
similar  in  church  organization  and  theology  will  doubt- 
less arrive  in  the  near  future  at  a  working  basis  which 
will  eliminate  waste  and  contribute  the  added  strength 
and  joy  which  follows  from  obedience  to  the  Divine 
plan. 

Since  1902,  the  missionaries  of  most  of  the  missions 
in  Japan  have  been  united  in  a  way  which  grows  more 
effective  and  important  every  year.  This  form  of  union 
for  more  effective  service  was  first  called  "  The  Standing 
Committee   of   Co-operating   Missions,"  and  was   later 

*  Otis  Carey,  "  A  History  of  Christianity  in  Japan,"  Vol.  II, 
P-  n- 


238  THE  KINGDOM 

changed  to  "  The  Conference  of  Federated  Missions."  * 
A  yearly  meeting  of  the  members  is  held  in  January, 
which  acts  as  a  clearing  house  for  the  business  con- 
ducted during  the  year  by  the  executive  committee  and 
other  standing  committees.  An  important  part  of  the 
Federated  Missions'  work  is  the  yearly  issue  of  a  book 
called  The  Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  whose  first 
issue  was  in  1903.  It  is  loaded  with  valuable  matter 
that  every  student  of  missions  should  have,  f 

The  "  Union  Hymnal,"  which  has  passed  through 
thirty-six  editions,  is  another  product  of  united  efforts. 
The  hymnal's  compilation  and  publication  originated  at 
the  conference  of  missionaries  in  1900,  when  a  resolution 
was  adopted  looking  toward  "  the  use  of  a  common 
hymnal  by  the  Christians  of  Japan  ...  in  view  of 
the  great  importance  of  laying  this  foundation  of  unity 
among  the  Christians  of  Japan  whatever  be  their  ec- 
clesiastical connections."  $  A  missionary  woman  says 
that  even  in  non-Christian  homes,  if  there  is  an  organ 
or  a  piano  the  hymnal  is  frequently  found.  Whether  it  be 
a  hymnal,  Bible  translation,  work  against  the  white  slave 
traffic,  the  world's  Sunday  School  Association,  the 
World's  Student  Christian  Federation,  or  any  other  big 
step  forward  for  God  and  the  race — the  big  things  must 
be  done  and  can  only  be  done  by  planning  and  moving 
together. 

In  considering  the  stupendous  proposition  of  world 
evangelization — the  momentous  issues  and  difficulties  in- 
volved— it  is  regrettable  that  some  international  and  inter- 
denominational body  or  committee  representative  of  all 

*  See  Appendix  E  for  further  details. 

t  This  book  is  published  in  cloth  and  paper  covers.  The  issue 
usually  has  over  500  pages.  "  The  tenth  annual  issue  of  The 
Christian  Movement  in  Japan  is  more  than  its  name  implies, 
for  in  addition  to  its  complete  survey  of  the  progress  of  Chris- 
tianity, it  covers  Japanese  domestic  and  colonial  politics,  social 
reforms,  etc." — The  Independent. 

X  See  Report  of  Conference,  p.  43. 


UNITY  AND  CO-OPERATION  239 

the  churches,  all  the  missionaries,  and  their  mission 
boards,  had  not  come  into  being  decades  ago.  A  provi- 
dential step  was  taken  at  the  Edinburgh  Conference  in 
1910,  when  the  Continuation  Committee  was  appointed 
which  may  develop  into  this  much  needed  committee  or 
body.* 

Following  the  visit  of  John  R.  Mott,  who  visited  the 
Orient  in  behalf  of  the  Continuation  Committee,  impor- 
tant conferences  were  held  in  Tokyo,  f  which  resulted  in 
the  organization  of  an  auxiliary  Continuation  Committee 
for  Japan.  The  initial  work  of  the  Committee  will  be 
a  nation-wide  evangelistic  campaign  to  extend  over  a 
period  of  three  years.  Eighty  per  cent  of  the  people 
are  in  the  rural  districts,  of  which  ninety-six  per  cent 
is  an  unworked  field.  As  eighty  per  cent  of  the  whole 
population  are  not  directly  reached,  the  missionaries  have 

*  At  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference,  Sir  Andrew  H.  L. 
Fraser,  chairman  of  the  commission  on  co-operation  and  the 
promotion  of  unity,  moved  a  resolution  which  resulted  in  the 
adoption  of  a  Continuation  Committee,  by  which  the  Conference, 
in  its  spirit,  purpose,  and  work,  will  be  continued.  The  Con- 
tinuation Committee  of  thirty-five  members  was  thus  appointed. 
It  has  its  Executive  Committee  and  ten  other  special  committees. 
On  the  Continuation  Committee  are  ten  members  from  America, 
ten  from  the  British  Isles,  ten  from  the  continent  of  Europe, 
and  five  as  representatives  from  Asia,  Africa,  and  Australia. 
"  All  that  the  Committee  asks  is  the  opportunity  to  serve,  and 
it  wishes  increasingly  for  advice  and  suggestions  as  to  how  best 
it  may  serve  those  who  are  working  in  the  one  great  cause." — 
Mrs.  Louisa  Creighton,  International  Review  of  Missions, 
Vol.  II,  No.  5. 

The  Committee  will  not  deal  with  "  matters  which  are  con- 
cerned with  the  doctrinal  or  ecclesiastical  differences  of  the 
various  denominations."  "  Its  work  will  be  purely  consultative 
and  advisory  and  in  no  sense  legislative  or  mandatory.  The 
value  of  its  recommendations  will  depend  upon  the  experience  and 
reality  and  truth  behind  them."  See  John  R.  Mott's  article  about 
the  Continuation  Committee  in  pamphlet  form,  or  as  published 
in  International  Review  of  Missions,  Vol.  I,  No.  i. 

t  See  Findings  of  the  Continuation  Committee  Conferences, 
held  in  Tokyo,  April  3-11,  1913. 


240  THE  KINGDOM 

asked  that  the  number  of  evangelistic  missionaries  be 
doubled. 

If  Protestant  churches  cannot  unite  as  churches,  their 
members  can  unite  in  organizations  which  lay  emphasis 
upon  good  works.  Temperance,  purity,  and  social  reform 
associations,  Endeavour  Societies,  and  Laymen's  Move- 
ments have  had  the  blessing  of  God  because  they  have 
been  enthused  and  empowered  by  the  dynamic  energy  of 
unity  exerted  for  the  whole  church  and  the  whole  world. 
Among  the  organizations  in  Japan  which  have  their  dis- 
tinctive work,  yet  which  make  for  unity,  may  be  men- 
tioned the  work  of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.,  the  Y.  W.  C.  A., 
and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 

The  Woman's  Temperance  Union  of  Japan  was  organ- 
ized in  1895.  It  has  89  organizations,  4,000  Japanese 
members,  and  6,000  children  in  the  Loyal  Temperance 
Legion.  It  is  entirely  self-supporting,  save  the  salary 
of  the  foreign  representative.  Two  monthlies  are  issued, 
one  for  women  and  one  for  children.  Several  splendid 
institutions  are  supported  by  the  organization.  Among 
them  are  the  Florence  Crittenton  Rescue  Home  in  Tokyo, 
which  gives  a  shelter  and  Christian  atmosphere  for  fallen 
women  and  unfortunate  girls;  a  home  for  sailors  in 
Kure,  and  a  rescue  home  in  Osaka,  which  can  accommo- 
date one  hundred  homeless  and  unemployed  girls  and 
women. 

It  is  in  large  measure  due  to  the  efforts  of  this 
society  that  non-smokers  are  on  the  express  trains 
between  Tokyo  and  Yokohama  and  on  the  Kobe  express ; 
that  every  soldier  and  sailor  was  provided  with  a  com- 
fort bag  during  the  time  of  the  Russo-Japanese  war; 
that  scientific  temperance  lectures  are  being  given  largely 
throughout  the  schools  of  Japan. 

The  Young  Woman's  Christian  Association  began  its 
work  in  Japan  after  an  invitation  had  been  sent  by  the  la- 
dies of  Yokohama  and  Tokyo  to  the  World's  Convention 
in  London.    The  National  Committee  issues  a  monthly 


UNITY  AND  CO-OPERATION  24.1 

magazine  and  holds  an  annual  summer  conference.  Miss 
Michi  Kawai,  a  graduate  of  Bryn  Mawr  College,  and 
Miss  Tei  Ninomiya,  a  graduate  of  Smith  College,  as 
well  as  seven  foreign  secretaries,  give  their  time  to  the 
association.  The  association  pays  special  attention  to 
the  girls  in  government  schools,  for  whom  they  have 
built  two  student  hostels  and  conduct  twenty  Bible  classes. 
The  membership  and  the  number  of  associations  are  in- 
creasing rapidly. 

Besides  work  for  students,  the  association  has  work 
for  girls  employed  in  offices,  hospitals,  and  factories.  A 
new  building  will  be  erected  in  the  heart  of  Tokyo, 
where  young  women  as  students  or  business  employees 
may  receive  the  social,  educational,  and  spiritual  assist- 
ance so  much  needed  in  a  great  world  city  where  greed, 
lust,  and  the  love  of  pleasure  exact  their  yearly  tribute 
of  young  lives.  The  work  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  which 
was  not  organized  until  1905,  is  still  in  its  pioneer  stage. 
A  careful  study  of  the  field  has  shown  that  there  is  a 
large  opportunity  and  pressing  need  for  Christian  work 
among  the  ever  increasing  numbers  of  wage-earning 
women  as  well  as  the  intensive  work  among  the  thou- 
sands of  girls  who  flock  for  education  to  the  schools  of 
the  larger  cities. 

In  1897,  the  thirty  student  associations  of  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  which  had  sprung  up  were  united  in  a  national 
union,  and  in  1903,  all  the  associations  in  the  country, 
both  city  and  student,  were  amalgamated  into  the  present 
Japanese  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Union.  It  has  at  present  seventy 
associations,  with  about  7,300  members,  besides  2,300 
in  the  railway  department  in  Korea.  In  Japan  proper 
there  are  twenty-seven  buildings  in  fifteen  different  cities, 
valued  at  $318,800,  of  which  the  Japanese  contributed 
$22,952.  Among  the  donors  are  Baron  Kanda,  Baron 
Iwasaki,  and  Baron  Mitsui. 

The  most  striking  events  in  the  history  of  the  move- 
ment have  been  the  great  work  among  the  soldiers  during 


24a  THE  KINGDOM 

the  Russo-Japanese  war;  the  conference  of  the  World's 
Student  Christian  Federation  at  Tokyo;  and  the  relief 
of  the  fire  sufiferers  at  Osaka.  The  work  among  the 
soldiers  did  not  a  little  to  recommend  Christianity  to  the 
conservative  official  classes  and  to  break  down  the  preju- 
dices of  the  country  districts  from  which  the  soldiers  were 
largely  drawn.  The  prestige  thus  won  by  the  association 
led  the  railway  authorities  of  the  country  to  welcome 
similar  work  among  the  railway  employees.  At  present 
there  are  three  secretaries  working  under  their  auspices 
among  the  seven  thousand  Japanese  employees  of  the 
Government  railways  of  Korea.  One  of  the  latest  devel- 
opments of  the  movement  is  the  self-supporting  magazine 
— The  Pioneer — which  finds  its  way  quite  widely  among 
the  educated  young  men.  The  visits  of  John  R.  Mott, 
secretary  of  the  World's  Student  Christian  Federation,* 
have  always  been  marked  by  large  and  fruitful  meetings 
for  students. 

The  most  recent  forward  steps  have  been  the  sending 
of  Seijiro  Niwa,  the  veteran  secretary  of  the  movement, 
to  develop  the  work  in  Korea,  and  Secretaries  Hibbard 
and  Morise  to  Dalney,  the  capital  of  Japanese  enterprise 
in  Manchuria.  The  fact  that  the  Japanese  Government 
in  Dalney  has  given  at  nominal  cost  a  splendid  site  for 
the  building  shows  how  deeply  it  feels  the  need  of  what 
the  association  can  do  for  young  men  in  Manchuria. 
The  fixed  policy  of  the  movement  in  Japan  from  the  first 
has  been  to  make  it  indigenous  and  thoroughly  Japanese 
in  its  control.  The  International  Committee  of  the  As- 
sociations of  North  America  has,  from  the  first,  gen- 
erously supplied  men  and  secured  gifts,  but  the  authority 
and  ownership  have  always  been  vested  in  the  Japanese 
movement  itself. 

♦  Mr.  Mott  visited  Japan  in  1896,  1901,  190)7,  and  1913. 


IX 

THE  CONVERTS  AND  THE  CHURCHES 


The  salvation  of  Japan  depends  largely  upon  the  Japanese. 
Can  you  find  a  St.  Paul  among  them?  Only  with  such  a  man 
can  you  hope  to  save  Japan. — Wm.  T.  Stead. 

And  other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold:  them  also 
I  must  bring  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice :  and  they  shall 
become  one  flock,  one  shepherd. — John  x,  i6. 

It  is  a  question  whether  there  is  not  in  the  Oriental  nature, 
and  at  its  best,  especially  in  its  aspects  of  reverential  worship, 
of  contemplative  insight,  of  sympathetic  attachment  to  the  un- 
seen, and  of  responsive  loyalty  to  Christ,  which  may  enable 
it  to  contribute  an  added  charm  and  a  winsome  attractiveness 
to  the  Christian  world. — James  S.  Dennis,  "The  New  Horo- 
scope of  Missions." 

The  surest  ground  of  hope  for  the  comparatively  early  Chris- 
tianization  of  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  people  is  the  fact 
that  within  a  generation  of  the  founding  of  the  first  church 
Christianity  has  become  naturalized,  has  given  birth  to  leaders 
comparable  in  character  and  ability  to  those  of  the  West,  and 
has  created  several  aggressive,  self-governing  bodies. — Galen 
M.  Fisher,  The  Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  391. 

In  a  home  for  discharged  prisoners,  established  in  Tokyo  by 
a  Christian,  Taneaki  Hara,  1,117  persons  have  been  cared  for 
since  its  establishment  thirteen  years  ago.  This  number  has 
included  801  burglars,  74  murderers,  49  incendiaries,  141  pros- 
titutes, and  73  vagrants.  About  500  of  these  former  jailbirds 
have  been  restored  to  a  reputable  life,  123  have  died,  and  only 
113,  or  about  ten  per  cent,  have  returned  to  a  criminal  life. — 
Tasuku  Harada,  International  Review  of  Missions,  January, 
1912,  p.  90. 

Selfishness  is  the  source  of  all  evils,  but  Christianity  teaches 
love  as  the  first  thing.  God  is  Love ;  Christ,  who  hung  upon 
the  cross,  is  the  embodiment  of  love ;  we  human  beings  are  all 
brothers,  and  to  us  the  one  great  commandment  of  life  is  love 
to  God  and  to  each  other.  If  we  love  our  neighbour  as  we  do 
ourselves,  all  the  social  problems  of  the  world  will  be  easily 
solved. — Gunpei  Yamamuro,  The  Christian  Movement,  1910, 
p.  298. 


IX 

THE  CONVERTS  AND  THE  CHURCHES 

THE  enduring,  life-giving  things  which  shall  never 
pass  away,  are  the  words  of  Jesus.  He  said :  "  In 
secret  spake  I  nothing."  His  Gospel  is  for  every 
man.  It  is  a  public  Gospel  with  a  breadth  as  wide  as 
the  race,  and  a  reach  beyond  the  limits  of  time.  All 
that  the  Gospel  requires  is  hearers  in  an  open  field, 
who  are  not  prejudiced  by  the  fanaticism  of  false  teach- 
ers or  intimidated  by  the  sword.  The  victory  of  the 
Gospel  is  assured  in  any  land  if  once  the  people  have  a 
chance  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  Cross  and  know  its 
message  of  love  to  human  depravity  and  of  salvation 
by  grace. 

Though  the  masses  in  Japan  are  still  unacquainted 
with  Christianity,  yet  the  proportion  in  high  circles  who 
respect  it  or  are  obedient  to  its  precepts  is  strikingly 
large.  The  former  wife  of  Prince  Katsura,  who  was 
thrice  Prime  Minister,  was  a  member  of  the  Congrega- 
tional Church.  The  wife  and  mother  of  Baron  Goto,  an 
ex-Cabinet  minister,  are  church  members.  Judge  Noboru 
Watanabe,  head  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  Korea,  is  a 
Christian.  Admiral  Uryu,  who  opened  the  war  with 
Russia,  was  educated  at  Annapolis  and  joined  the  church 
when  living  in  New  Haven.  In  1908,  out  of  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty  members  of  the  Japanese  House  of 
Representatives,  fourteen  were  Christians.  For  some 
years  before  the  death  of  Prince  Ito,  his  private  secre- 
tary was  a  Christian. 

Even  from  the  very  first,  the  influence  of  Christianity 
upon  the  Japanese  Government  has  been  more  than  is 
generally  known.    The  Iwakura  Embassy  of  1872,  which 

245 


S46  THE  KINGDOM 

had  much  to  do  in  shaping  Japan,  was  launched  by  a 
missionary.  At  Washington  the  embassy  picked  up  Nee- 
sima  as  an  interpreter.  Kinkichi  Kataoka,  a  member  of 
the  embassy,  served  as  President  of  Japan's  Lower 
House  of  Parhament  for  six  years,  and  was  a  most  devout 
Christian.  The  noted  Imperial  oath  was  drafted  by  Yuri 
Kosei,  who  was  a  disciple  of  Yokoi  Shonan,  whose  pro- 
nounced Christian  views  cost  him  his  life.  Many  of 
the  middle  classes  and  but  few  of  the  common  people 
have  entered  the  church.  One  of  the  chief  reasons  is  his- 
torical in  its  origin.  For  more  than  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  the  people  were  taught  that  Christianity  was 
the  synonym  of  all  evil  and  to  accept  it  was  a  treasonable 
act  always  punished  by  death.  The  removal  of  mis- 
conceptions about  Christianity  which  were  promulgated 
under  the  Shogunate  must  necessarily  be  slow  in  a  land 
where  the  people  are  intensely  patriotic  and  manifest  a 
unique  loyalty  to  the  Imperial  House.* 

In  a  country  town  the  chief  man  gave  us  permission 
for  holding  preaching  services  provided  we  said  nothing 
against  the  Imperial  decrees.  From  the  day  that  the 
multitudes  of  Japan,  who  are  composed  of  fishers,  farm- 
ers, and  artisans,  are  convinced  that  Christianity  is  not 
anti-governmental,  there  will  be  an  unparalleled  triumph 
of  the  Cross. 

The  converts,  as  a  whole,  are  poor  in  this  world's 
goods  and  many  of  them  have  but  the  rudiments  of  an 

*  The  reverence  of  the  Japanese  for  their  Emperor,  and  the 
sanctity  with  which  his  person  is  regarded,  probably  surpasses 
that  of  any  other  nation  in  the  Twentieth  Century.  I  have  never 
heard  but  one  Japanese  say  in  public  that  he  hoped  that  the 
Emperor  would  become  a  Christian.  But  once  have  I  ever  heard 
a  missionary  in  public  speak  of  the  Emperor's  conversion.  He 
had  grown  grey  in  missionary  service,  and  before  a  large  audi- 
ence of  Japanese  he  said :  "  I  am  determined  to  pray  for  the 
Emperor's  conversion  as  long  as  I  live.  And  should  I  live  to 
see  it,  like  Simeon  I  would  say,  '  Now,  Lord,  lettest  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace.' " 


THE  CONVERTS  AND  THE  CHURCHES     247 

education.  Most  of  them  are  lacking  in  the  experience 
which  makes  for  world  success  and  are  without  the  influ- 
ence which  goes  with  authority  and  age.  During  the 
Civil  War,  the  enrollment  of  Union  soldiers  was  2,778,- 
309,  counting  re-enlistments.  It  was  the  young  who 
dared  break  from  home  and  abandon  the  pursuit  of 
wealth  and  pleasure;  2,000,000  of  this  number  were 
under  21  at  the  time  they  took  up  arms  and  884,891 
were  16  years  of  age.*  Any  visitors  to  the  Church  of 
Japan,  be  they  in  the  country  or  city,  will  be  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  it  is  the  young  who  have  dared  break 
away  from  custom  and  tradition  and  resist  the  protest 
of  priest  and  relative. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  converts  who  are 
organizing  into  churches  and  struggling  to  support  their 
pastors,  live,  in  many  instances,  in  communities  which 
are  opposed  and  sometimes  hostile  to  the  Cross.  The 
wonder  is  that  they  hold  out  against  petty  persecution 
and  win  the  respect  of  their  opponents.  The  Christian 
in  the  home  lands  has  every  advantage  of  the  well- 
organized  Church,  the  advantage  of  a  voluminous  Chris- 
tian literature,  the  lifting  power  of  lectures,  Chautauquas, 
and  conventions.  When  we  consider  the  lack  of  these 
helps  on  the  mission  fields,  it  is  a  marvel  that  the  con- 
verts, so  lacking  in  knowledge,  are  so  rich  in  faith  and 
that  the  churches,  many  of  which  are  no  larger  than  a 
Sunday  School  class  at  home,  accomplish  so  much. 

Japanese  Christians  reverence  the  House  of  God. 
They  always  bow  their  heads  for  a  short  prayer  when 
entering  the  church  and  always  sit  after  the  benediction 
for  an  instant  of  silent  prayer.  To  be  a  Christian  means 
to  abandon  all  intoxicants,  and  the  use  of  tobacco  is  gen- 
erally condemned.  Christmas  time  and  Flower  Day  in 
May  or  June  are  occasions  when  the  churches  are  over- 
crowded by  the  friends  and  relatives  of  the  children  of 
the    Sunday    Schools.     Originality    and    independence 

*  Youth's  Companion. 


248  THE  KINGDOM 

crop  out  on  every  hand.  A  Japanese  who  drew  fourteen 
pictures  representing  the  Good  Samaritan,  sketched  the 
wounded  man  as  a  Japanese,  the  Good  Samaritan  as  a 
Chinaman,  and  the  priest  as  a  Shintoist,  and  the  Levite 
as  a  Buddhist. 

The  experiences  of  the  Christians  have  often  impressed 
me  with  the  oneness  of  the  race  and  the  universality  of 
the  Gospel.  A  man  who  became  a  Christian  said,  "  The 
sense  of  sin  led  me  to  Christ,  but  it  was  the  mutual 
love  and  sympathy  of  Christians  that  led  me  into  the 
Church."  Another  wrote,  "  The  love  of  God  seemed  to 
me  something  to  be  specially  grateful  for.  As  I  was 
educated  a  strict  Shintoist,  the  idea  that  God  should 
love  men  was  new  and  strange  to  me."  *  A  Christian 
boy  wrote  his  spiritual  father :  "  You  may  congratulate 
me  on  my  marriage.  My  home  I  know  will  be  very 
humble,  but  I  pray  that  from  it  may  go  a  ceaseless  influ- 
ence for  Christ  and  for  the  redemption  of  my  people."  f 
An  aged  Christian,  dying  of  cancer,  said :  "  I  have  fin- 
ished all  my  work.  I  am  ready  to  go  and  waiting  for 
God's  call,  but  I  am  glad  to  wait  and  pray." 

The  good  works  of  the  converts  and  the  churches 
have  a  genuine  Christian  stamp.  A  young  brewer  who 
was  won  to  Christ  sold  his  brewery,  but  there  was  left  on 
his  hands  a  lot  of  casks  filled  with  native  beer.  After 
a  little  reflection,  he  removed  the  stoppers  and  emptied 
the  liquor  into  the  gutter.^  A  millionaire  money  lender 
of  Osaka,  who  went  by  the  endearing  name  of  "  Satan," 
was  all  but  killed  by  a  thief.  A  church  near  by  prayed 
for  his  conversion  and  sent  messengers  to  console  him 
and  win  him  to  the  faith.  In  his  statement  at  his  bap- 
tism he  said :  "  The  people  of  Japan  must  have  a  religion, 
and  they  are  beginning  to  find,  as  I  have  done,  that 

*  Selected  from  an  article  by  Albertus  Pieters,  Japan  Evati' 
gelist,  April,  1912. 
t "  World  Wide  Evangelization,"  p.  389. 
i  London  Conference,  1888,  Vol.  I,  pp.  297,  299. 


THE  CONVERTS  AND  THE  CHURCHES     249 

Christians  live  up  to  their  professions.  They  have  good 
habits  and  perform  good  deeds."  *  Tomijiro  Kobayashi, 
the  originator  of  Lion  Tooth  Powder,  always  carried  a 
New  Testament  in  his  pocket  after  his  conversion.  He 
gave  away  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  public  gifts, 
besides  many  private  donations  to  the  Church  and  to 
the  poor.f 

It  is  worth  a  journey  across  the  Pacific  to  visit  some 
of  the  self-supporting  and  entirely  independent  churches 
in  Japan.  Twenty-two  per  cent  of  the  organized  churches 
are  wholly  self-supporting  and  sixty-seven  are  partly  self- 
supporting.  A  visitor  to  the  church  where  Tsuneteru 
Miyagawa  preaches,  in  Osaka,  will  find  not  only  a  live 
church  but  a  flourishing  Sunday  School,  which  meets 
in  a  specially  erected  Sunday  School  building.  I  can 
never  forget  a  visit  to  the  Ginza  Methodist  Church  near 
Hibiya  Park.  The  pastor  said  during  his  sermon  :  "  The 
burden  of  our  preaching  has  been  the  revelation  of  the 
Father.  Henceforth  we  must  exalt  Christ :  Christ  the 
Heart  of  our  religion,  Christ  our  moral  exemplar,  Christ 
our  Saviour,  Christ  the  Son  of  God."  At  the  close  of 
the  sermon  they  sang  "  Rescue  the  perishing."  Then  a 
member  of  Parliament  arose  and  said  he  was  sure  of 
the  victory  of  Christianity  in  Japan  and  hoped  that  they 
could  soon  crowd  the  church  with  Christians." 

The  churches  which  are  independent  and  striving  for 
self-support  have  shown  a  sacrificing  spirit  and  a  will- 
ingness to  give.  Especially  have  the  pastors  of  such 
churches  shown  fortitude  and  faith.  I  know  of  two 
churches  which  in  gratitude  to  their  pastors  have  paid 
all  their  expenses  in  a  journey  around  the  world.  I  know 
of  a  little  Presbyterian  church  which  struggled  to  buy 
a  building  lot.  The  lot  cost  $1,300.  An  officer,  the  rich- 
est man  in  the  congregation,  who  had  a  sum  total  of 
$2,500,  gave  $400  towards  buying  the  lot.     I  know  of 

*  George  Alchin,  Japan  Evangelist,  April,  1909,  p.  146. 
t  H.  Loomis,  Japan  Evangelist,  April,  1909,  p.  158. 


250  THE  KINGDOM 

a  Japanese  farmer,  a  member  of  a  weak  little  church, 
who  pays  the  pastor's  entire  salary. 

The  growing  output  of  Christian  literature  emanating 
from  Japanese  sources  is  a  tribute  to  the  intellectual 
ability  of  Christian  leaders.  Such  institutions  as  the 
Okayama  Orphanage,  the  Doshisha,  the  Bible  School 
established  by  Masashisa  Uemura,  and  the  Middle  School 
maintained  by  Soroku  Ebara  are  striking  evidences  both 
of  consecration,  intellectual  power,  and  executive  force. 
"  No  education  is  complete  without  the  training  of  man's 
spiritual  nature.  No  manhood  can  be  symmetrically  de- 
veloped apart  from  religious  ideas."  These  words,  ut- 
tered by  a  Japanese  educator,  ring  true  to  our  own  ideas. 

The  churches  which  have  been  established  have  re-* 
spected  the  doctrines  and  church  government  of  the 
mother  churches  which  sent  forth  the  missionaries,  but 
there  is  no  slaving  conformity  to  foreign  models  or  dic- 
tation. Most  of  the  churches  have  joined  in  a  "  Federa- 
tion of  Protestant  Christian  Denominations  in  Japan." 
In  the  past,  many  problems  have  grown  out  of  the  rela- 
tions of  the  missionary  to  the  Japanese  preachers  and 
churches. 

In  some  cases  a  little  friction  has  been  unavoidable. 
On  the  whole,  the  policy  of  missionary  co-operation  with 
the  Japanese  has  reached  a  settled  state  in  which,  along- 
side efficient  Japanese  churches,  the  missionary  has  his 
place  as  an  educator,  a  pioneer  evangelist,  an  adviser, 
helper,  and  soul-winner.  The  resources  and  strength  of 
the  Japanese  churches  of  necessity  are  expended  in  the 
home  field.  However,  they  have  sent  a  few  of  their 
evangelists  as  missionaries  to  Formosa,  Korea,  Man- 
churia, and  Hawaii.  Besides  the  Roman  Catholic  and 
Greek  Churches,  there  are  four  well-organized  Japanese 
Churches  which  have  become  a  power  in  the  land.  They 
are  affiliated  with  the  Anglican,  Methodist,  Congrega- 
tional, and  Presbyterian  bodies. 

The  Holy  Japanese  church  (Nihon  Sei  Kyokwai)  be- 


THE  CONVERTS  AND  THE  CHURCHES     251 

came  an  organized  body  when,  in  1887,  the  foreign  mis- 
sionaries of  the  American  Episcopal  Church  and  those 
of  the  EngHsh  S.  P.  G.  and  C.  M.  S.,  with  their  baptized 
Japanese  converts,  were  organized  into  one  body.  There 
are  seven  bishops,  all  of  whom  are  foreigners,  and  about 
eighty  Japanese  and  an  equal  number  of  foreign  clergy. 
Just  as  soon  as  it  is  possible  to  replace  the  foreigners,  this 
church  will  become  entirely  Japanese  automatically.  The 
present  law  is  that  when  twelve  self-supporting  churches 
in  a  district  desire  it,  a  Japanese  will  be  consecrated  bishop 
for  them. 

The  Japan  Methodist  Oiurch  was  formed  by  the  union 
of  the  evangelistic  work  in  Japan  representing  the  mis- 
sions of  the  Methodist  Church  in  Canada,  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South.  It  was  after  the  Russo-Japanese  War 
that  the  Japanese  members  of  these  three  churches  peti- 
tioned for  a  union  of  Methodists.  The  several  General 
Conferences  of  the  home  churches  consented  and  sent 
two  commissioners  to  Japan  from  each  denomination. 
A  General  Conference  was  held  in  Tokyo,  in  1907,  which 
organized  and  set  in  motion  the  new  church.  A  disci- 
pline was  prepared  and  all  the  necessary  boards  and 
commissions  were  established.* 

The  Congregational  Church  is  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  influential  in  Japan.  From  the  first,  the  spirit  of 
independence  and  self-support  has  been  strong.  By 
1890,  out  of  sixty  churches,  forty-two  were  self-support- 
ing. A  home  missionary  society  was  founded  in  1878. 
The  large  contributions  and  church  membership  of  this 
body  is  partly  due  to  the  eminent  leaders  which  came 
out  of  the  "  Kumamoto  Band  "  and  partly  due  to  the 
policy  of  the  American  Board,  enriched  by  a  century  of 
experience. 

*  At  this  conference,  by  an  almost  unanimous  choice,  Yoitsu 
Honda  was  consecrated  the  first  bishop.  After  his  death,  Yoshi- 
yasu  Hiraiwa  was  chosen  as  his  successor. 


252  THE  KINGDOM 

The  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  (Nihon  Christo  Kyo- 
kwai)  was  organized  in  1877.  From  the  beginning  it 
has  been  ecclesiastically  entirely  independent  of  any  for- 
eign church.  It  is  Presbyterian  in  its  polity  and  has  a 
Synod  comprising  seven  presbyteries,  extending  from  the 
Hokaido  to  Manchuria  and  Formosa.  The  Church  has 
a  Board  of  Missions,  which  carries  on  evangelistic  work 
and  helps  congregations  to  become  self-supporting.  The 
Church  has  a  simple  evangelical  Confession  of  Faith,  and 
it  is  a  member  of  the  Alliance  of  Presbyterian  and  Re- 
formed Churches.  The  Church  leads  in  contributions 
for  evangelistic  work  and  the  Church  membership  is  the 
largest  of  any  Protestant  body. 


SOME  PROMINENT  JAPANESE 
CHRISTIANS 


We  are  hated  by  magistrates  and  priests,  but  we  have  planted 
the  standard  of  truth  here  and  will  never  more  retreat.— Joseph 
Hardy  Neesima. 

Each  man  is  born  a  hero  and  an  oracle  to  somebody,  and  to  that 
person  whatever  he  says  has  an  enhanced  value. — Emerson. 

The  greatest  need  of  present  Japan  is  said  to  be  an  economic 
development,  but  the  basis  of  economic  development  is  con- 
fidence and  confidence  will  only  come  as  the  fruit  of  moral  and 
religious  education,  based  upon  Christianity. — Soroku  Ebara,  a 
Member  of  the  House  of  Peers. 

n  a  man  will  climb  higher  than  his  fellows  he  must  expect 
to  be  sometimes  solitary;  his  reward  is  the  ever-widening  view, 
though  the  path  be  rougher  and  the  air  more  biting  than  in  the 
lower  altitude. — John  M.  Tyler,  "  The  Whence  and  Whither  of 
Man,"  p.  200. 

I  have  a  Japanese  friend  and  brother-minister  who  shames  me 
every  time  I  met  him  by  the  books  he  reads  and  the  mental 
progress  he  is  making.  He  gets  only  thirty-five  yen  a  month 
from  his  church,  and  he  does  not  get  that.  His  library  is  only 
a  small  fraction  of  mine,  but  in  quality  it  is  superior. — J.  G. 
DuNLOP,  The  Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  355. 

Every  great  personality  reveals  a  part  of  what  it  is  only  when 
seen  in  those  it  influences.  The  more  powerful  a  personality 
a  man  possesses  and  the  more  he  takes  hold  of  the  inner  life  of 
others,  the  less  can  the  sum  total  of  what  he  is  be  known  by 
what  he  says  himself  and  does. — Professor  Harnack,  quoted  in 
"  Modern  Discipleship  and  What  It  Means,"  p.  42^ 

It  may  be  easy  to  show  the  reasonableness  of  Christianity,  but 
to  instil  true  Christian  spirit  into  the  heart  of  the  people  is  not 
an  easy  task.  We  can  show  them  more  easily  the  folly  of  other 
religions,  but  to  build  up  a  true  Christian  church  requires  a  long 
time.  As  it  was  in  the  time  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  so 
it  will  be  in  Japan,  that  except  a  certain  grain  of  wheat  falls 
into  the  earth  and  dies,  it  abideth  by  itself  alone.  Unless  a 
great  many  precious  lives  shall  be  spent  in  this  difficult  and  great 
work,  we  cannot  hope  much  for  its  results. — Hiromichi  Kozaki, 
"  The  World's  Congress  of  Religions,"  p.  237. 


X 

SOME  PROMINENT  JAPANESE  CHRISTIANS 

THE  first  women  who  left  Japan  for  a  foreign 
country  were  five  girls  who  reached  the  United 
States  in  1872.  They  were  sent  in  company  with 
the  Iwakura  Embassy;  their  ages  ranging  from  seven 
to  sixteen  years.  Miss  Ume  Tsuda,  who  was  the  young- 
est,* took  a  special  course  at  Bryn  Mawr  College.  For 
some  years  after  returning  to  her  native  land  she  taught 
in  the  School  for  Noble  Girls.  But  she  felt  that  she  had 
a  larger  mission,  and  so  she  borrowed  $250,  rented  a 
little  house,  and  started  an  English  school  for  girls.  She 
opened  with  twelve  day  scholars  and  three  boarders,  and 
used  her  bedroom,  parlour,  and  dining-room  for  recita- 
tion rooms.  Miss  Tsuda's  success  is  the  old  story  of 
vision,  faith,  and  audacity.  Her  school  to-day,  known  as 
the  Women's  English  Institute,  is  crowded  to  its  utmost 
capacity  and  has  a  plant  valued  at  sixty  thousand  dollars. f 
Her  graduates  who  teach  English  in  governmental 
Normal  Schools  are  accepted  without  examination.  Miss 
Tsuda  was  born  in  Tokyo  and  is  a  member  of  the  Epis- 
copalian Church.  As  she  has  spent  about  fifteen  years 
of  her  life  in  the  United  States,  her  English  is  faultless. 
She  is  cheerful,  enthusiastic,  and  energetic.  But  the 
secret  of  her  life  is  her  willingness  to  sacrifice,  as  all 

*The  other  girls  were,  Ryo  Yoshimasu,  Tei  Ueda,  Stemazu 
Yamakawa,  who  studied  at  Vassar,  became  a  Christian  and  is 
now  Princess  Oyama,  the  wife  of  the  noted  general;  Shige  Nagai, 
who  took  the  musical  course  at  Vassar,  became  a  Christian  and 
is  now  Baroness  Uryu. 

t  From  the  first,  Miss  Tsuda  had  a  friend,  Miss  Alice  Bacon, 
author  of  "Japanese  Girls  and  Women,"  who  believed  in  her, 
encouraged  her,  and  helped  in  her  school. 

255 


256  THE  KINGDOM 

who  know  her  and  the  inside  history  of  her  school  can 
testify. 

At  what  seems  in  Japanese  eyes  the  extremely  ad- 
vanced age  of  eighty,  Mrs.  Kaji  Yajima,  known  as  the 
Frances  E.  Willard  of  Japan,  is  the  efficient  principal  of 
the  Joshi  Gakuin,  a  Presbyterian  school  for  girls,  and  is 
also  honoured  head  of  the  Japan  Women's  Christian 
Temperance  Union.  From  the  date  of  the  founding  of 
the  society,  about  twenty-five  years  ago,  Mrs.  Yajima 
has  divided  her  time  between  school  duties  and  the  pro- 
moting of  the  W.  C.  T.  U.  She  recently  presented  the 
mayor  of  Tokyo  a  petition  against  the  Yoshiwara  sys- 
tem, signed  by  ten  thousand  names  which  she  had  se- 
cured herself.  She  was  won  to  the  Christian  faith  by 
her  association  with  Mrs.  M.  T.  True,  while  eng'aged  as 
a  teacher  in  Graham  Seminary.  Mrs.  Yajima,  who  was 
born  in  Kumamoto  Province,  comes  from  a  good  family, 
who  bore  the  name  of  Tokutomi.  Intellectual  capacity  so 
marked  in  her  long  and  useful  life  is  likewise  exhibited 
by  two  of  her  brothers,  one  of  whom  is  a  noted  author 
and  another  a  prominent  editor.  In  1906,  by  invitation, 
she  attended  the  World's  W.  C.  T.  U.  convention  in 
Boston.  She  has  shown  her  people  that  a  woman  with 
a  noble  purpose  can  find  a  career  for  herself  outside  the 
limitations  of  the  home  circle.* 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  men  of  Japan  is  Juji  Ishii. 
He  is  a  man  of  great  faith,  great  works,  and  great  love. 
He  was  born  April  7,  1865,  ^t  Takanabe,  on  the  island 
of  Kyushu.  For  a  time  he  held  to  the  Catholic  faith, 
but  afterwards  joined  the  Congregational  Church  at 
Okayama.  He  was  by  nature  kindly  and  benevolent. 
George  Muller  visited  Japan  in  1886,  and  reports  of  his 
orphanage  at  Bristol  helped  Mr.  Ishii  to  decide  to  devote 
his  life  to  saving  children.  At  this  time  he  was  within 
four  months  of  graduation  as  a  medical  student,  but 
he  gave  up  his  school  and  burned  some  of  his  medical 

*  See  Japan  Evangelist,  January,  1913,  p.  28, 


PROMINENT  JAPANESE  CHRISTIANS    257 

books  that  he  might  not  be  tempted  to  neglect  his  God- 
given  work.  His  first  orphan  was  a  boy  of  eight  years, 
named  Sadaichi  Maebara,  whom  he  rescued  from  beg- 
gary. Three  months  later,  in  the  fall  of  1887,  he  rented 
a  part  of  a  Buddhist  temple,  into  which  he  moved  with 
his  family  and  two  other  orphans,  a  girl  of  three  and  a 
boy  of  five,  whose  parents  had  died  of  cholera.*  To-day 
his  faith  and  his  orphanage,  known  all  over  Japan,  is 
an  eloquent  testimony  of  the  power  of  the  living  Christ. 
At  one  time  he  had  as  many  as  twelve  hundred  children 
under  his  care,  and  he  has  never  refused  a  needy  appli- 
cant. He  has  adopted  the  cottage  system,  and  for  the 
cultivation  of  independence  and  self-support  maintains 
a  farm  of  seven  hundred  acres,  and  a  printing  plant  in 
the  city  of  Osaka. 

Gumpei  Yamamuro,  the  Japanese  leader  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army,  was  born  August  7,  1872,  in  Okayama  Prov- 
ince. He  had  a  good  mother  who,  though  unacquainted 
with  Christianity,  prayed  to  her  gods  that  her  son  might 
be  a  good  man.  As  eggs  were  a  luxury  enjoyed  only 
by  the  rich  in  her  community,  she  made  a  vow  never 
to  eat  eggs  as  long  as  she  lived  that  her  son  might 
become  a  blessing.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  he  came  to 
Tokyo  and  a  little  later  was  converted  by  hearing  the 
street  preaching  of  some  students.  Though  busily  en- 
gaged as  a  printer,  he  became  a  soul-winner  from  the 
start  and  devoted  many  nights  to  preaching  on  the  street. 
Hearing  of  Neesima  and  his  school,  he  decided  to  go  to 
Kyoto  for  an  education.  Though  he  had  no  funds,  he 
reasoned  that  God  was  able  to  care  for  him.  A  fellow- 
student  by  the  name  of  Seitaro  Yoshida,  poor  like  him- 

*The  Rev.  J.  H.  Pettee,  D.D.,  was  almost  from  the  first  Mr. 
Ishii's  counsellor  and  helper  in  this  work,  as  also  the  channel 
through  whom  contributions  from  foreign  friends  helped  in  pro- 
viding the  institution  with  buildings  and  funds  for  other  pur- 
poses.—Otis  Carey,  *'  History  of  Christianity  in  Jaj)an,"  Vol.  II, 
p.  197. 


258  THE  KINGDOM 

self,  befriended  him  and  went  to  self-denying  extremes 
to  assist  his  friend,  Yamamuro,  who  nevertheless  at 
times  was  compelled  to  subsist  on  water  and  sweet  pota- 
toes. While  in  Kyoto  he  learned  of  the  Salvation  Army 
through  "  In  Darkest  England  and  the  Way  Out."  The 
movement  appealed  to  him  as  the  best  organization  for 
reaching  the  common  people.  He  became  one  of  the 
first  cadets  and  ever  since  has  stood  as  the  champion  of 
the  poor,  a  zealous  pleader  for  Christianity  and  an  inde- 
fatigable worker  for  purity  and  righteousness.* 

Yugoro  Chiba  was  born  at  Sendai,  1870.  After  grad- 
uating from  several  schools  in  Japan,  he  went  to  the 
United  States  and  completed  his  education  at  Colby 
College,  Maine,  and  Rochester  Theological  Seminary. 
After  returning  to  Japan,  he  taught  in  Duncan  Academy, 
Tokyo,  previous  to  his  service  as  dean  of  the  Girls' 
School  at  Doshisha.  From  1903  to  1910,  he  spent  in  the 
Island  of  Kyushu,  where  he  laboured  as  a  general  evan- 
gelist and  editor,  and  afterwards  as  President  of  Fukuoka 
Theological  Seminary.  The  last  few  years  he  has  spent 
in  Tokyo  as  Dean  of  the  Japan  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary.  In  the  field  of  literature  he  has  published  a 
book  called  "  The  Social  Teachings  of  Jesus,"  and  is  now 
bringing  out  a  volume  on  "  Systematic  Theology."  In 
1910,  he  represented  the  Baptists  of  Japan  at  the  Edin- 
burgh Missionary  Conference.  In  191 1,  he  made  another 
trip  to  Europe  as  a  representative  of  the  Japan  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  He  has  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws,  conferred 
upon  him  by  Mississippi  College.  Mr.  Chiba's  solid 
worth  and  well-balanced  life  have  been  fully  demon- 
strated as  a  preacher,  teacher,  and  writer. 

Kakujiro  Ishikawa  was  born  at  Ashikaga,  Tochiji 
Province,  in  1867.  After  his  education  in  Tokyo,  he 
went  to  the  United  States  and  attended  University  Col- 
lege in  San  Francisco.  While  a  student  in  the  city  he 
was  baptized  by  M.  J.  Furgerson,  and  became  identified 

*  See  Japan  Evangelist,  December,  191 2,  p.  592. 


PROMINENT  JAPANESE  CHRISTIANS    259 

with  the  Disciples  of  Christ.  For  a  time  he  taught  in 
an  English  night  school,  maintained  by  the  ladies  of  the 
Twelfth  Street  Christian  Church.  After  a  course  in  the 
Ohio  State  University,  where  he  made  a  specialty  of 
English,  he  returned  to  Tokyo  and  taught  for  a  time  in 
Waseda  University.  During  his  employment  in  the  No- 
ble's College,  he  received  the  rank  of  Jiirokui  from  the 
Imperial  Household  department,  for  meritorious  service 
as  a  teacher  of  English.  At  the  founding  of  Drake 
Bible  College  and  Middle  School,  sustained  by  his  church 
at  Takinogawa,  Tokyo,  he  resigned  his  position  in  the 
Noble's  College  and  became  President  of  the  Boys'  School 
and  teacher  in  the  Theological  Department.  During  the 
Centennial  Convention  of  the  Disciples  in  Pittsburgh,  in 
1909,  he  was  in  attendance  by  invitation  and  spoke  in 
many  of  the  churches  of  the  Central  States.  His  services 
have  been  invaluable  as  a  leader  and  teacher  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  school  known  as  Sei  Gakuin.  He  is  a 
teacher  of  ability,  an  earnest  preacher,  and  a  wise  coun- 
sellor. 

Joseph  Sakunoshin  Motoda  *  was  born  February  22, 
1862,  at  Kurume,  Kyushu.  Twenty  years  later,  for  the 
sake  of  an  English  education,  he  entered  Saint  Timothy's 
School,  Osaka.  After  some  months  of  careful  study  of 
Christianity,  he  was  baptized  by  the  head  of  the  school, 
Theodosius  S.  Tyng.  From  the  very  first  he  showed  the 
qualities  of  leadership  and  won  many  of  his  fellow- 
students  to  Christ.  Previous  to  his  departure  for  America 
in  1886,  he  served  as  a  catechist  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
and  determined  to  enter  the  ministry.  In  the  United  States 
he  received  the  degree  of  M.A.  from  the  Kenyon  College 
at  Gambier,  Ohio,  and  later  on,  the  degree  of  Ph.D. 
from  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He  spent  a  year 
at  Columbia,  working  in  touch  with  the  Charity  Organ- 
ization Society  of  New  York  City.     Since  his  return 

*The  author's  sketch  is  based  upon  an  article  written  by  J. 
Armistead  Wilbourn,  in  the  Japan  Evangelist  for  March,  1913. 


260  THE  KINGDOM 

to  Japan  in  1896,  he  has  served  as  Head  Master  of  St. 
Paul's  College  in  Tokyo.  He  is  a  leader  in  his  own 
church,  a  prominent  representative  of  Christianity,  and 
a  man  of  influence  in  governmental  circles.  He  has,  on 
various  occasions;,  journeyed  to  America,  India,  China, 
and  all  parts  of  the  Japanese  Empire.  He  is  an  able 
public  speaker  in  English  and  Japanese  and  an  author 
of  Japanese  books. 

Takeshi  Ukai  was  born  at  Matsue,  Shimane  Province, 
in  1865.  After  attending  school  in  Tokyo,  he  went  to 
San  Francisco  in  1885,  and  the  following  year  was  bap- 
tized by  Dr.  F.  J.  Masters.  After  his  call  to  the  ministry, 
he  spent  a  year  and  a  half  in  Hawaii  as  an  evangelist 
among  his  countrymen.  He  then  returned  to  America 
and  spent  five  years  at  Simpson  College,  Indianola, 
Iowa,  where  he  graduated  with  honour  in  1894.  The 
following  year  he  returned  to  Japan.  He  is  an  illustri- 
ous example  of  what  a  Japanese  pastor  of  ability  and 
faith  can  do.  He  is  now  serving  his  third  pastorate  at 
the  Giza  Methodist  Church  in  Tokyo.  The  artistic 
church  building  is  modern  in  every  respect  and  is  a 
fitting  monument  to  the  energy  and  good  judgment  of 
Mr.  Ukai.  For  two  years  he  served  as  general  secretary 
of  the  Sunday  School  Association  and  travelled  through- 
out the  islands  of  Japan,  holding  institutes  and  arousing 
enthusiasm.  During  a  short  pastorate  at  Kamakura,  he 
built  the  "  Gibson  Memorial  Church."  "  He  is  affable 
in  manner,  painstaking  in  business,  and  always  deeply 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  others,  especially  the  mem- 
bers of  his  own  flock."  * 

Hiromichi  Kozaki  was  born  in  the  city  of  Kumamoto, 
in  1856.  After  the  persecutions  which  broke  out  against 
Captain  Janes  and  his  noted  band  of  Christians,  he 
joined  the  band  and  was  one  of  the  class  who  entered 
the  college  at  Doshisha.    After  graduation,  he  served  as 

*  Julius  Soper's  sketch  of  Mr.  Ukai  in  the  "  Children  of  Japan 
for  Christ  and  the  Church." 


PROMINENT  JAPANESE  CHRISTIANS    261 

a  minister  in  Tokyo,  where  he  founded  the  Congrega- 
tional Church  at  Reinanzaka,  in  1879,  ^^^  the  Bancho 
Church,  in  1886.  Following  the  death  of  Neesima,  he 
was  for  seven  years  President  of  Doshisha.  After  de- 
voting two  years  to  evangelistic  work,  he  returned,  in 
1899,  to  the  Reinanzaka  Church,  where  he  has  laboured 
up  to  the  present  time.  There  are  five  hundred  and  thirty 
names  on  the  roll,  and  about  half  of  the  number  reside 
in  Tokyo.  Among  the  members  are  three  members  of 
Parliament,  several  government  officials  and  directors 
of  corporations.  At  the  Parliament  of  Religions  in  Chi- 
cago, in  1893,  Mr.  Kozaki  was  Japan's  only  Christian 
representative.  At  the  same  Parliament,  six  Buddhists 
and  one  Shintoist,  dressed  in  their  priestly  robes,  spoke 
for  the  dying  religions  of  Japan.  In  1879,  in  company 
with  others,  he  had  part  in  the  organization  of  the  first 
branch  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Japan,  in  the  city  of  Tokyo. 
It  was  he  that  coined  the  word  Seinenkai,  by  which  name 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  known  in  Japan.  He  is  a  clear 
thinker,  an  able  essayist,  and  an  author  of  many  books 
on  Christianity.*  In  1906,  he  made  an  extended  tour 
of  the  Pacific  Coast,  speaking  to  Japanese  from  Van- 
couver to  San  Diego.  He  is  the  honoured  head  of  the 
Sunday  School  Association  of  Japan,  and  was  sent  by 
the  Association  to  the  Convention  at  Zurich,  Switzerland. 
Kajinosuke  Ibuka  was  born  on  the  fourth  of  July, 
1854,  at  Wakamatsu.  His  father  was  a  soldier  of  rank, 
who  served  as  a  colonel  during  the  War  of  the  Restora- 
tion, during  which  the  entire  family  was  shut  up  within 
the  besieged  castle  of  Wakamatsu.     After  the  fall  of 

*  Mr.  Kozaki  has  published  many  valuable  books,  and  stands 
to  the  forefront  as  a  defender  of  the  faith.  Among  his  pub- 
lications are :  "  The  Essential  Nature  of  Christ,"  "  Religion  and 
Politics,"  "  Reasons  for  Faith,"  "  Religion  and  Morality,"  "  The 
Resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,"  "  The  State  and  Religion," 
"  Christianity  and  Our  Constitution,"  which  is  a  defence  against 
the  charges  of  Prof.  Hiroyuki  Kato,  an  agnostic  and  a  pro- 
noimccd  enemy  of  Christianity. 


262  THE  KINGDOM 

the  castle,  young  Ibuka  went  to  Yokohama  and  entered 
a  Government  school,  where  he  met  Dr.  S.  R.  Brown. 
It  was  through  him  that  he  was  led  into  the  Church,  and 
was  baptized  by  him  in  January,  1873.  Those  were  the 
days  when  timid  spirits  fell  through  the  sieve  of  perse- 
cution, and  only  a  few  rock-like  characters  were  bold 
enough  to  stand  out  publicly  and  alone.  In  1878,  he 
was  ordained  a  minister,  after  graduation  from  the 
Union  Theological  School  in  Tokyo,  maintained  by  the 
churches  of  the  Presbyterian  faith.  In  1890,  he  went  to 
America  for  study  at  Union  Theological  Seminary  in 
New  York  City.  Owing  to  the  resignation  of  Dr.  J.  C. 
Hepburn,  he  returned  to  Tokyo  to  become  the  president 
of  the  school  known  as  Meiji  Gakuin,  which  position 
he  has  uninterruptedly  occupied  since  1891.  The  fol- 
lowing year  Rutgers  College  conferred  upon  him  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  As  a  public  speaker  in 
the  English  language  few  Japanese  are  his  equal.  He 
has  had  connection  with  many  national  and  international 
movements  and  has  made  several  trips  to  America  and 
Europe,  the  last  one  being  as  a  delegate  to  the  World's 
Sunday  School  Convention  at  Zurich. 


XI 

SOME  INCIDENTS  AND  EXPERIENCES 


If  there  were  only  one  Christian  in  the  world  and  he  worked 
for  a  year  and  won  a  friend  to  Christ,  and  these  two  continued 
to  win  each  year  another,  and  every  man  thus  brought  in  the 
Kingdom  led  another  every  year,  in  thirty-one  years  every  person 
in  the  world  would  be  won  for  Christ. — Japan  Evangelist,  March, 
1903. 

A  traveller  once  came  into  my  study  in  Japan,  pulled  out  his 
notebook,  and  said :  "  Now  tell  me  all  about  our  mission  work 
in  five  minutes."  He  had  been  four  weeks  in  Japan  seeing  the 
sights,  and  had  failed  to  present  up  to  that  time  his  letter  of 
introduction.  He  was  to  sail  the  next  day.  I  declined  the  task 
and  advised  him  to  sail  without  the  information — J.  O.  Spencer, 
"  World  Wide  Evangelization,"  p.  387. 

Who  is  a  missionary? 
He  who  hears  the  Saviour's  last  command, 
"  Go  into  all  the  world,  the  Gospel  preach 
And  all  I  have  commanded  you,  go  teach — 
And  so  disciples  make  in  every  land," 
And  hearing  this,  tho'  it  demand 
The  giving  up  of  home  and  love  and  native  land, 
The  breaking  of  all  ties  men  hold  most  dear — 
"  Thy  will  be  done,"  he  says,  "  and  tho'  the  way  is  drear, 
God  will  give  strength  and  love  and  cheer — 
I  go, — and  trust  all  to  His  guiding  hand." 

Who  is  a  missionary? 

He  whose  eyes,  Hke  Christ's,  gaze  on  the  whitened  field — 
Who  sees  the  dearth  of  workers  to  reap  the  priceless  yield; 
Who  feels  the  need  of  haste,  for  life  at  most  is  brief; 
And  these  we  meet  to-day,  to-morrow  may  be  beyond  relief. 
Ah !    Shall  there  be  to-morrow  for  us  here,  who  can  say? 
"  The  night  is  fast  approaching,"  work  to-day— and  pray ! 

Mrs.  Maude  W.  Madden. 


XI 

SOME  INCIDENTS  AND  EXPERIENCES 

BEFORE  the  electric  street-car  line  had  been  laid 
from  Tokyo  to  Yokohama,  a  short  line  had  been 
in  operation  between  Omori  and  Kawasaki  sta- 
tions. As  these  stations  were  already  connected  by  rail- 
way, there  was  no  apparent  reason  why  the  street  cars 
should  be  crowded  and  at  times  overflowing.  The  line 
wound  its  way  lazily  in  and  out  among  the  rice  fields, 
but  the  reason  remained  a  mystery  to  me,  until  one  day 
I  boarded  the  line  for  an  investigation.  The  electric  car 
carried  me  toward  the  sea,  where  stood  a  stately  temple 
dedicated  to  the  god  Daishi.  The  mystery  was  thus 
solved.  Pilgrims  came  here  to  worship  in  such  numbers 
that  a  street-car  line  had  been  built  on  their  account  and 
it  was  paying  good  dividends.  That  day  I  learned  that 
electricity  can  be  as  useful  for  idolatry  as  Christianity. 
Since  then,  I  have  seen  temple  compounds  lighted  by 
electricity,  others  roofed  with  zinc  and  slate,  still  others 
built  exactly  like  our  churches.  In  west  Japan  the  Bud- 
dhist priests  have  drawn  pictures  upon  the  temple  walls, 
illustrating  the  experiences  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  and  they 
tell  the  story  as  a  Buddhistic  gem.  Thus  we  have 
Western  invention,  Western  church  methods,  and  even 
portions  of  our  Scriptures  appropriated  for  bolstering  and 
propagating  idolatry. 

Back  in  1871,  a  Japanese  teacher,  Einosuke  Ichikawa, 
who  had  taught  Dr.  Greene  and  O.  H.  Gulick,  was  ar- 
rested at  night.  Both  he  and  his  wife  were  thrown  into 
prison.  He  was  suspected  of  leaning  toward  Chris- 
tianity, hence  the  Government  spirited  him  away  and  he 
died  the  next  year  from  his  privations.     The  missionaries, 

265 


266  THE  KINGDOM 

the  American  Consul,  and  Mr,  De  Long,  the  American 
Minister,  made  every  search  for  him,  but  their  efforts 
were  in  vain.  The  next  year  Prince  Iwakura  was  in 
Washington  urging  a  revision  of  treaties,  but  at  the 
council  board  it  was  stated  that  the  revisions  desired 
could  not  be  granted  to  a  nation  persecuting  Christians. 
Persecution  was  denied,  but  as  Mr.  De  Long  was  present, 
and  cited  the  instance  of  the  Ichikawas,  Prince  Iwakura 
could  make  no  defence.  Not  many  months  afterwards, 
the  edict  boards  against  Christianity,  which  had  stood 
throughout  Japan  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  were 
removed.  When  the  Ichikawas  were  thrown  into  prison, 
there  was  not  a  Japanese  preacher,  not  a  Japanese  church 
building,  nor  even  a  single  congregation  in  the  Empire. 
A  few  years  ago,  at  the  Y,  M.  C.  A.  Auditorium  in 
Tokyo,  there  was  assembled  an  audience  of  four  or  five 
hundred  Japanese  Christians  besides  scores  of  Japanese 
ministers  of  the  Gospel.  A  feeble  old  woman  was  led 
to  the  front  of  the  platform  and  introduced.  The  whole 
audience  arose  and  gave  her  the  Chautauqua  salute.  She 
was  none  other  than  Mrs.  Ichikawa,  who  had  lived  to 
see  a  better  day — a  day  that  she  had  scarcely  dreamed 
possible  when  in  her  prison  cell. 

For  some  time  after  the  peace  terms  had  been  signed 
which  closed  the  last  war,  General  Kawamura  remained 
at  the  front.  The  other  generals  had  returned,  as  had 
most  of  the  regiments  which  had  guarded  boundaries 
and  communications.  One  day  I  found  an  immense 
crowd  at  Shimbashi  (Tokyo)  station,  held  within  the 
lines  by  the  police.  I  asked  an  official  at  the  station  what 
it  all  meant.  He  replied :  "  Have  you  not  heard  that 
General  Kawamura  returns  to-day?  He  is  the  last  to 
return  from  the  front."  I  replied :  "  No,  I  have  not 
heard  it.  Are  the  other  generals  out  on  the  platform 
to  greet  him  ?  "  To  my  surprise  they  were  all  there.  A 
sudden  impulse  seized  me  to  see  these  great  generals 
of  a  great  war.    Their  courage,  their  wisdom  and  power 


SOME  INCIDENTS  AND  EXPERIENCES    267 

might  be  contagious.  I  passed  elegantly  dressed  ladies, 
ambassadors  from  different  nations,  military  attaches, 
princes,  and  the  nobility  of  the  land.  In  a  group  by 
themselves  stood  Oyama,  the  general-in-chief ;  near 
him  was  Nogi,  who  took  Port  Arthur;  Kuroki,  who 
chased  the  Russians  from  the  Yalu,  and  the  dashing 
Oku  and  Nodzu  of  Mukden  fame.  There  they  stood,  the 
gallant  and  brave  who  had  fought  and  won  and  yet  had 
given  to  their  Emperor  the  glory.  Soon  the  special 
train  whistled,  and  as  it  approached,  the  gaily  dressed 
crowd  rushed  forward.  Hats  went  off;  everybody  bowed 
and  smiled;  they  gave  him  a  royal  welcome  because  he 
had  returned — a  hero,  the  last  general  from  the  seat 
of  a  great  war.  I  did  not  join  the  crowd,  for  time  and 
earth  seemed  to  have  sped  away.  The  consummation  of 
the  age  had  come,  and  all  nations  were  standing  before 
the  throne  of  God!  Instead  of  broadcloth,  swords, 
medals,  and  epaulets,  angels  in  shining  raiment  were  about 
the  Lamb ;  veterans,  too,  were  there,  who  had  fought  and 
won  on  the  side  of  the  Lord.  Martyrs  were  there  also, 
and  a  noble  band  who  had  sown  with  tears  beside  all 
waters.  And  just  as  Japan's  Imperial  band  burst  forth 
in  a  tumultuous  welcome,  the  only  missionary  there  that 
day  prayed  that  he  and  every  other  soldier  of  the  Cross 
might  be  welcomed  by  the  Great  King  as  victor,  and  in 
the  end  receive  a  more  royal  welcome  than  General 
Kawamura  received  at  the  railway  station. 

When  we  landed  in  Japan,  not  a  Japanese  was  at  the 
boat,  but  seven  years  later,  when  we  departed  for  home, 
a  crowd  was  at  the  station  and  a  score  or  more  journeyed 
with  us  for  eighteen  miles  to  Yokohama  and  stood  on  the 
great  steamer's  deck  till  the  last  gong  was  sounded  to 
say  their  last  and  affectionate  farewells.  The  scorner 
of  missions,  be  he  Japanese  or  American,  never  fails  to 
assert  that  our  converts  are  hirelings.  But  these  true 
souls  were  not  hirelings.  They  were  as  worthy  and  in- 
dependent as  any  who  like  to  call  themselves  the  chil- 


268  THE  KINGDOM 

dren  of  Dai  Nippon.  It  was  no  formality,  this  parting 
on  the  boat.  One  lady  came  a  journey  of  eighty  miles. 
One  man  came  from  a  city  fifty  miles  away.  He  was  in 
poor  health  and  should  not  have  made  the  journey.  Like 
those  of  our  own  blood,  they  said  their  good-byes  and 
wished  us  a  speedy  return. 

It  was  not  easy  to  leave  them,  yet  a  new  longing  for 
home  swelled  up  within  our  breasts  as  we  lifted  anchor 
at  Honolulu  and  our  liner  began  slowly  to  move  out  of 
the  harbour  for  San  Francisco.  Just  then  the  band  was 
playing  "  Home,  Sweet  Home,"  and  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
were  gracefully  bending  to  the  breeze.  Gentlemen  used 
their  handkerchiefs  freely  and  many  a  lady  strewed 
pearly  tears  among  the  jewels  of  her  necklace.  Just  as 
the  band  struck  an  air  that  mother  had  taught  me  when 
a  boy,  I  threw  formality  to  the  winds,  wiped  my  own 
eyes,  and  rejoiced  that  I  was  nearing  my  native  land 
where  people  could  laugh,  cry,  talk,  write,  buy,  sell, 
marry,  travel,  free  from  all  the  tyranny  of  custom,  police, 
or  family  supervision. 

One  time  when  alone  in  Tokyo,  I  was  visited  by  a 
Chinese  student  of  some  social  standing  in  his  own 
land.  He  was  a  graduated  lieutenant  and  expected 
shortly  to  return  to  China.  He  carried  a  sword  and  over 
a  beautiful  suit  ornamented  with  brass  buttons,  he  wore 
a  long,  black  cloak.  It  was  not  long  until  this  fine  look- 
ing Chinese  was  on  his  knees,  begging  to  stay  a  few 
days  in  our  home  that  he  might  see  with  his  own  eyes 
how  foreigners  actually  lived. ,  I  was  amused  at  his 
importunity  and  admired  his  audacity.  I  tried  to  put 
him  off  by  explaining  that  as  my  family  was  away  he 
could  see  nothing  of  our  real  home  life.  However,  his 
enthusiasm  and  persistence  finally  won  the  day  and  I 
admitted  him  to  the  best  the  house  could  afford.  That 
evening  as  we  knelt  at  worship  there  were  one  Japanese, 
one  Chinese,  and  one  American.  We  used  the  Japanese 
language,  as  that  was  the  only  one  we  all  knew  in  common. 


SOME  INCIDENTS  AND  EXPERIENCES    269 

The  Scripture  selection  was  from  the  second  chapter 
of  Luke.  The  aged  Simeon  said :  ''  For  mine  eyes  have 
seen  thy  salvation,  which  thou  hast  prepared  before  the 
face  of  all  peoples,  a  light  for  revelation  to  the  Gentiles, 
and  the  glory  of  thy  people  Israel,"  The  words  of 
Simeon  had  thus  moved  around  the  world,  had  bridged 
the  centuries,  and  had  suffered  nothing  from  transla- 
tion and  re-translation.  According  to  prophecy,  repre- 
sentatives of  three  great  Gentile  nations  that  night  thought 
on  the  wonderful  salvation  which  is  coming  so  timely,  so 
providentially  as  a  light  to  lighten  the  whole  Orient, 

Some  months  ago,  a  number  of  our  missionaries  and 
Japanese  ministers  joined  in  a  strenuous  campaign  in  a 
city  near  Tokyo.  One  night,  about  io:oo  p.m.,  I  walked 
down  the  street  about  two  blocks  to  where  the  Buddhists 
were  holding  forth  in  a  similar  protracted  effort.  Be- 
sides their  priests,  they  had  a  number  of  students  from 
their  own  University  in  Tokyo.  Their  meetings  were 
held  in  an  open  park  adjoining  our  preaching-place.  Two 
great  paper  lanterns  and  many  smaller  ones,  cast  a  dim 
light  over  the  audience.  The  priest  who  addressed 
the  crowd  was  dressed  in  a  magnificent  silk  robe.  Bands 
of  gold  cloth  hung  over  his  shoulder.  His  talk  was 
eloquent,  smooth,  and  pleasing  but  he  lacked  earnestness. 
He  was  applauded  by  the  auditors  at  the  close  of  his 
address  and  they  dispersed  immediately  as  the  lights 
were  blown  out.  Our  own  preaching  continued  full 
blast  at  least  a  full  half-hour  after  the  Buddhists  gave 
up  for  the  night's  rest.  We  had  a  larger  crowd,  electric 
lights,  and  a  hall  that  was  equally  suited  for  rain  or 
shine.  But  what  impressed  me  most  was  the  contrast 
between  the  speakers.  The  minister  then  speaking  de- 
livered his  message  with  a  fiery  zeal,  with  a  surety  of 
faith,  and  with  a  loving  persuasion  which  certainly, 
gripped,  if  it  did  not  convert  the  listeners. 

James  H.  Ballagh  was  the  first  missionary  in  Japan 
to  be  given  a  celebration  for  fifty  years  of  service.     The 


270  THE  KINGDOM 

celebration  took  place  in  Yokohama  (1911),  upon  the  site 
where  the  first  church  in  Japan  had  been  founded.  On  this 
occasion,  in  speaking  of  the  growth  of  the  Japanese 
Church,  Julius  Soper  said :  "  I  never  dreamed  that  I 
would  see  with  my  eyes,  or  hear  with  my  ears,  the  won- 
derful things  that  God  hath  wrought  in  Japan."  When 
Mr.  Soper  came  out,  there  were  only  a  hundred  and 
fifty  Japanese  believers  in  the  entire  Empire.  D.  C. 
Greene  said,  that  when  he  came  out  as  a  young  man 
years  before,  he  had  come  "  prepared  to  serve  God  for 
fifty  years  without  seeing  a  single  Christian."  The 
snowy-haired  patriarch,  James  Ballagh,  with  tears  in  his 
eyes,  with  trembling  hand,  and  yet  with  form  erect,  and 
spirit  exultant,  stood  before  the  audience  *  of  five  hun- 
dred Japanese  Christians,  some  of  whom  he  had  baptized 
on  the  same  day  that  the  first  church  was  organized  in 
Japan,  and  said :  "  I  would  not  trade  my  position  for  the 
Emperor's.  I  would  not  exchange  my  position  for  any 
other  man's  position  in  the  wide  world."  Young  reader, 
to  whom  God  has  given  health,  faith,  education,  and 
a  talent  to  be  of  some  use  in  the  extension  of  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven,  would  you  lay  at  the  feet  of  the  King 
at  last  a  record  that  you  had  turned  grass  and  corn  into 
cattle  and  hogs,  a  record  that  you  had  turned  gold  into 
bonds  and  more  gold,  a  record  that  you  had  turned  brick 
and  mortar  into  skyscrapers,  or  would  you  present  a 
record  that  you  had  turned  by  your  money  or  by  your 
voice,  many  to  the  Lamb  of  God,  and  thus  aided  in  turn- 
ing a  mighty  nation  heavenward,  Godward? 

*  After  the  audience  had  been  dismissed  and  dispersed,  a 
dozen  or  so  of  the  young  men  of  the  city,  Christian  men,  emerged 
from  a  side  room,  captured  Mr.  Ballagh,  and  boosted  him  several 
times  well  into  the  air.  Not  one  of  them  enjoyed  the  exercise 
more  than  the  smiling,  white-haired  veteran. 


XII 
THE   FUTURE   OF   CHRISTIANITY 


Don't  ever  prophesy  unless  you  know! — James  Russell 
Lowell. 

Our  grand  business  undoubtedly  is,  not  to  see  what  lies  dimly 
at  a  distance,  but  to  do  what  lies  clearly  at  hand. — Thomas 
Carlyle. 

We  also  dare  to  predict  that  by  2001  Shinto  will  have  entirely 
disappeared  as  a  religion.  Buddhism  will  have  lost  its  hold 
upon  the  people  and  Japan  will  have  become  practically  a  Chris- 
tian nation. — Ernest  W.  Clement,  "A  Handbook  of  Japan," 
p.  288. 

Upon  the  ephermal  Is  presses  the  eternal  Ought.  Behind  this 
Ought  presses  the  soldier  of  God,  and  under  that  pressure  all 
things  change,  all  things  rise  and  fall — fall  only  to  re-arise  in  a 
restless  reaching  for  the  ideal. — A  Writer  in  the  Cosmopolitan. 

Japan  is  on  the  highway  to  a  Christian  civilization.  Her  rapid 
advance  calls  for  special  thought.  Her  military  power  and  in- 
creasing wealth  will  all  come  to  naught  without  Him  who  is 
the  Prince  of  Peace.  Her  call  is  the  call  of  the  race. — F.  M. 
Rains. 

We  Christians  need  accordingly  to  gird  ourselves  for  the 
mighty  struggle  of  the  future.  These  are  not  indeed  likely  to 
be  struggles  of  flesh  and  blood — of  the  sword  and  rack,  but 
struggles  of  thought,  of  keen  dialectical  debate,  with  compact 
systems  of  theology  and  philosophy. — Sidney  L.  Gulick,  The 
Christian  Movement,  1910,  p.  252. 

The  missionary  work  of  the  world  is  a  fundamental  work, 
underneath  all  educational  and  all  political  advancement,  and 
all  humanitarian  progress ;  and  the  missionary  thought  is  the 
living  thought  to-day  in  the  best  minds  of  Protestant  Christen- 
dom; and  we  are  to  trust  God  for  the  future. — Dr.  Richard  S. 
Storrs,  "  Addresses  on  Foreign  Missions,"  p.  29. 

An  immoral  nation  goes  under,  sooner  or  later.  But  a  nation, 
on  the  other  hand,  composed  of  vigorous,  intelligent,  healthy,  and 
moral  people — no  matter  how  old  its  history  or  how  enormous 
its  heritage — stands,  sure  and  steady,  against  every  attack;  noth- 
ing can  destroy  it. — Harold  Begbie,  "  The  Ordinary  Man  and 
the  Extraordinary  Thing,"  p.  49- 


XII 

THE  FUTURE  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

A  THOUGHT  is  quicker  than  a  beam  of  light  and 
reaches  farther.  It  is  as  penetrating  and  elusive 
as  the  ether.  It  would  be  easier  to  lift  a  globule 
of  mercury  with  a  pair  of  tongs  than  to  uproot  an  idea 
that  has  once  commended  itself  to  the  intelligence  and 
affections  of  a  people.  It  would  be  a  strange  result 
that  a  nation  which  has  taken  the  sun  as  its  national 
ensign  should  finally  reject  the  Son  of  moral  and  spiritual 
light. 

In  contemplating  the  future  of  Christianity  in  any 
land,  the  superhuman  element  must  never  be  forgotten. 
When  the  time  came  for  Christianity  to  spread  among 
the  Gentiles,  God  chose  Paul.  When  the  time  came  to 
break  from  mediaeval  superstitions,  God  sent  Luther. 
When  the  time  came  to  make  the  last  grand  advance, 
God  thrust  forth  William  Carey.  And  so  we  can  "  be 
of  good  cheer,"  for  our  Lord  has  "  overcome  the  world." 

"  Behind  the  dim  unknown, 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above 
His  own." 

When  looking  toward  the  future,  it  is  encouraging  to 
recall  the  providences  of  the  past.  Every  advance  in 
the  government  of  Japan  has  been  a  blessing  for  the 
cause  of  Christianity.  Missionaries  and  Japanese  Chris- 
tian workers  owe  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  to  those 
Japanese  patriots  who  have  devoted  their  genius  and 
shed  their  blood  for  their  country  and  for  the  right, 
who,  in  a  sense,  have  become  martyrs  for  the  Kingdom 

273 


^74  THE  KINGDOM 

of  Heaven.  Prince  Iwakura  was  blamed  for  the  removal 
of  the  signboards  against  Christianity  and  barely  escaped 
assassination  by  jumping  into  a  moat  in  the  darkness. 
Count  Okuma  had  his  limb  torn  off  by  a  bomb.  Lord 
li  Kamon,  who  negotiated  with  Admiral  Perry,  was 
killed,  and  Yokoi  Shonan,  who  pleaded  for  the  toleration 
of  the  Christian  faith,  was  slain,  and  so  was  his  friend, 
Sakuma  Shozan.*  The  Church,  therefore,  outside  of 
itself,  has  a  most  valuable  asset  for  all  future  contin- 
gencies in  the  inborn  sense  of  justice  and  right,  and  the 
fearless  abandon  for  its  defence  and  execution  in  the 
hearts  of  a  host  of  Japanese,  whether  Christian  or  non- 
Christian. 

A  fraction  multiplied  by  a  fraction  gives  a  disappoint- 
ing result.  Fractional  and  imperfect  men  cannot  be 
lifted  and  inspired  by  fractional  men.  More  men  are 
needed  whose  capacities  run  up  to  the  thousandth  place, 
— men  like  Stephen,  who  made  a  commotion  in  Jerusa- 
lem; like  Paul,  whose  zeal  was  greater  than  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean,  who  was  at  home  before  bar- 
barians, philosophers,  and  the  courtiers  of  kings.  Owing 
to  conservatism  and  the  rising  tide  of  nationalism,  it  is 
probably  a  blessing  that  so  far  no  towering  champion  of 
the  faith  has  been  born,  or  at  least  has  not  appeared 
among  the  Japanese.  Great,  good,  and  brilliant  men  the 
Japanese  Church  has  produced,  but  not  a  commanding 
genius  like  their  own  Kobodaishi,  a  Nichiren,  or  a 
Ninomiya  Sontoku.  Japan  needs  a  central  Christian 
University;  she  needs  an  additional  force  of  hundreds 
of  Japanese  preachers  and  foreign  missionaries;  but 
more  than  these  she  needs  a  great  Christian  champion, 

* "  I  have  ever  been  an  advocate  of  allowing  foreigners  to 
own  land  in  Japan.  Some  years  ago  when  the  excitement  over 
this  question  ran  high,  my  advocacy  of  this  policy  was  the 
cause  of  a  bomb  being  thrown  into  my  carriage,  which  so  shat- 
tered my  leg  as  to  lead  to  its  amputation." — Count  Okuma, 
North  American  Review,  February,  1905. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  CHRISTIANITY      275 

as  fearless  and  irrepressible  as  a  Tolstoi,  as  zealous  and 
as  devout  as  a  John  Wesley,  with  the  intellect  and  culture 
of  a  Calvin  or  an  Alexander  Campbell.  That  such  a 
man  will  soon  appear,  there  can  be  no  doubt;  and  such 
a  man's  work  must  always  be  considered  as  a  great  gain 
in  bending  the  balance  of  future  measurements. 

One  great  difficulty  in  making  a  forecast  of  the  future 
is  a  characteristic  of  the  Japanese.  They  do  not  move 
singly  so  much  as  they  move  together.  The  current  of 
their  life  does  not  flow  steadily  as  a  stream,  but  like  as  a 
dam  gathers  for  days  and  then  breaks  in  a  mighty  rush ; 
so  these  quiet  citizens  of  the  Island  Empire  of  the  Pacific 
wait  and  wait  and  gather  their  spiritual  or  political 
forces  into  the  mass,  and  then  they  hurl  it  forward  with 
an  enthusiasm  and  momentum  which  is  irresistible.  So 
far  the  Church  has  been  gaining  converts  singly;  but 
the  dam  of  conservatism,  of  prejudice,  and  of  national- 
ism, which  is  suppressing  a  host  of  souls,  will  some  day 
break,  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  can  the  true  story 
of  the  work  of  fifty  years  of  Christian  missions  be  told. 

Jesus  said :  "  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  whosoever  shall 
not  receive  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he 
shall  in  no  wise  enter  therein."  Few  who  have  lived 
among  the  Japanese  will  mention  docility  as  a  prominent 
characteristic.  And  what  docility  there  was  is  buried 
under  an  avalanche  of  world  success,  trampled  under 
by  the  struggle  for  riches,  the  struggle  for  bread,  and 
all  but  forgotten  in  the  search  for  happiness  and  worldly 
wisdom.  And  yet  their  discerning  minds  and  aesthetic 
tastes,  bent  on  "  seeking  goodly  pearls,"  will  some  day 
find  "  one  pearl  of  great  price,"  and  in  that  day  no 
people  will  make  a  more  sweeping  surrender  that  they 
may  buy  it.  In  measuring  the  advancement  or  computing 
the  probable  spiritual  growth  of  any  people,  it  must  not 
be  forgotten  that  all  psychical  changes  come  slowly. 
Any  man  can  change  his  clothes  and  ornament  himself 
with  a  red  necktie  and  a  stand-up  collar  at  pleasure.    The 


276  THE  KINGDOM 

same  man  may  know  the  woes  of  the  drunkard,  yet  it 
may  be  a  lifelong  struggle  to  gain  the  mastery  over  his 
appetite,  or  to  hold  a  violent  temper  in  check.  If,  there- 
fore, the  growth  of  an  individual  be  slow  with  every 
advantage  of  Christian  surroundings,  we  should  not  ex 
pect  too  much  of  millions  of  individuals  who  live  in 
an  atmosphere  where  the  rays  of  Christian  influence  have 
just  begun  to  penetrate. 

In  America  and  England,  the  press,  the  pulpit,  the 
school  are  powerful  factors  in  influencing  public  opinion 
and  public  morality.  In  Japan,  the  press  as  a  whole 
deals  fairly  with  Christianity,  but  of  course  it  could  not 
be  called  Christian.  As  to  the  pulpit,  Christian  speakers 
are  in  such  a  small  minority  that  idolatrous  priests  all 
but  monopolize  everything  that  enters  the  nation's  heart. 
As  to  the  school,  we  have  a  similar  situation.  The 
teachers,  if  not  zealous  Shintoists  or  Buddhists,  are  either 
Confucianists  or  pronouncedly  agnostic,  and,  as  a  whole, 
have  been  opposed  to  Christianity. 

In  Japan  there  is  a  fourth  organ  of  influencing  public 
opinion,  and  that  is  the  Government  through  its  various 
departments.  The  Department  of  Education  in  many 
ways  during  the  past  has  shown  an  unfriendly  attitude 
to  Christianity,  and  in  the  last  few  years  the  army  and 
navy  have  shown  hostility  to  Christianity,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  both  in  the  war  with  China  and  the 
war  with  Russia,  Christian  soldiers,  sailors,  and  officers 
have  stood  at  the  front  in  deeds  of  heroism  and  loyalty 
to  their  country.  For  some  years  to  come,  the  Govern- 
ment in  Japan  will  be  a  stronger  factor  in  determining 
the  spread  of  Christianity  than  the  press,  the  school,  or 
the  advocates  of  religion.  This  is  because  the  press  is 
not  entirely  free,  because  all  schools  are  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  central  Government,  and  the  Government 
likewise  has  supervision  over  many  details  pertaining  to 
priests  and  temples,  while  Christian  churches  and  work- 
ers, so  far,  are  given  little  consideration. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  CHRISTIANITY       277 

Now  that  Korea  has  become  a  part  of  the  Japanese 
Empire,  Japan's  Christianization  is  related  to  the  status 
of  Christianity  in  Korea.  The  world-famous  Korean 
Conspiracy  Trial  has  brought  both  Korean  missionaries 
and  Korean  converts  into  prominence.  In  the  summer 
of  1912,  the  District  Court  of  Seoul  tried  123  prisoners 
on  a  charge  of  attempt  to  kill  the  Governor  General, 
Terauchi,  and  found  106  of  them  guilty.  The  prisoners, 
mostly  from  North  Korea,  said  in  open  court  that  they 
were  tortured  to  give  the  confessions  upon  which  they 
were  condemned,  which  confessions,  if  reliable,  would 
implicate  certain  missionaries  in  the  murder  plot.  Among 
the  convicted  were  eminent  Korean  Christians,  such  as 
pastors,  teachers,  elders.  The  case  was  brought  into  the 
Appellate  Court,  which  acquitted  99  of  the  prisoners 
and  sentenced  6  of  them  to  five  and  six  years  imprison- 
ment. One  of  the  prisoners,  who  was  sick,  could  not 
appear  in  the  Appellate  Court.  In  behalf  of  the  six  con- 
demned men,  the  case  was  carried  to  the  Supreme  Court, 
which  annulled  the  judgment  of  the  lower  court  and 
referred  it  back  for  retrial.  Whether  the  courts  finally 
convict,  pardon,  or  acquit  all  the  accused,  the  affair  has 
been  most  lamentable.  Perhaps  no  one  circumstance  in 
fifty  years  of  mission  history  in  the  Orient  has  been  so 
serious.* 

There  are  two  important  spots  in  the  Japanese  Empire. 
North  Korea  is  most  strategic  and  likewise  vulnerable 
from  the  point  of  Imperial  defence.  Tokyo  being  the 
heart  of  the  Empire,  is  the  capital  city,  where  any 
internal  disorder  would  be  most  in  evidence.  In  these 
two  locations  prudential  reasons  therefore  urge  that  the 
missionaries  and  Christian  converts  be  very  wise,  very 
blameless,  very  prayerful. 

The  Church  of  the  future  will  have  a  long  contest 

*  Of  the  123  arrested,  86  were  Presbyterians,  8  Methodists, 
2  Congregationalists,  i  Roman  Catholic,  22  of  no  religion,  and  4 
whose  faith  is  unknown. 


278  THE  KINGDOM 

with  the  old  faiths  before  they  yield  their  hold  or  influ- 
ence upon  the  masses.  Christianity  will  have  to  face 
not  only  the  philosophies  and  the  popular  apologetics 
which  have  been  developed  in  behalf  of  the  ancient 
faiths,  but  in  addition  it  will  have  to  meet  all  the  pet 
infidel  theories  of  the  modem  Western  world,  with  which 
Japanese  priests  have  become  familiar.  Some  time  back 
I  noticed  the  bookcase  of  a  Buddhist  graduate  of  Yale. 
It  was  filled  with  modern  books  on  theology  and  phi- 
losophy. Among  the  rest  were  Ladd's  "  System  of  Phi- 
losophy," Paulsen's  "  Ethics,"  Fisher's  "  Church  His- 
tory," and  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 

The  champions  in  this  intellectual  contest  of  the  future 
will  be  the  Japanese  and  not  the  missionaries.  It  is  a 
hopeful  sign  that  the  Japanese  Church  has  developed 
men  of  talent  and  faith  who  are  able  to  contend  for  the 
faith  in  magazine,  pamphlet,  and  book.  There  is  some- 
thing grand — ^yes,  awe-inspiring,  about  these  self-sup- 
porting and  independent  churches  which  are  appearing 
all  over  Japan.  They  are  the  foundations  upon  which 
God  purposes  to  erect  all  the  glorious  superstructure  of 
His  Church  in  these  islands.  They  are  the  centres,  the 
dynamic  centres  from  which  will  radiate  the  spiritual 
energies  which  will  save  and  transform  Japan.  Though 
these  churches  are  few  in  number  and  poor  in  this  world's 
goods,  it  is  no  wonder  that  priests,  satiated  by  luxurious 
living  and  surrounded  by  all  the  glittering  trappings  of 
idolatry — it  is  no  wonder  that  they  fear  these  Gideon 
bands  and  are  apprehensive  for  the  future.  A  Buddhist 
priest  said  recently :  "  We  are  in  very  great  trouble  and 
do  not  know  what  to  do.  Christianity  has  hitherto  been 
without  recognition  and  influence  .  .  .  but  by  the  recent 
action  of  the  Home  Department,  Christianity  has  been 
elevated  to  the  top,  and  we  must  now  hustle  or  we  will 
be  left  without  following  or  influence." 

A  decade  or  more  ago  Japan  was  confident  that  she 
could  get  along  without  any  religion.     One  statesman 


THE  FUTURE  OF  CHRISTIANITY      279 

said :  "  I  do  not  regret  the  tendency  to  free  thought  and 
atheism  which  is  almost  universal  in  Japan."  An  editor 
said :  "  We  do  not  need  religion  of  any  kind.  What  we 
want  to  insure  a  glorious  future  for  our  beloved  coun- 
try are  armies  and  navies,  commerce,  manufacture,  and 
modern  education  with  plenty  of  natural  science  in  it." 
Such  statements  are  no  more  openly  advocated.  Rather 
has  religion  come  to  be  considered  a  necessary  medicine 
for  the  cure  of  moral  maladies.  This  decided  swing  to 
religion,  even  as  an  expedient  or  help  for  the  state,  is 
very  encouraging.  Christian  workers  now  have  an  op- 
portunity for  work  which,  if  utilized  in  full,  will  affect 
the  future  materially. 

If  the  Church  of  Christ  in  Japan  is  given  but  a  few 
more  decades  of  tranquillity,  freedom  of  speech,  and  even 
as  much  welcome  and  interest  as  is  generally  shown  now, 
there  will  be  little  occasion  for  any  one  after  these  decades 
have  passed  to  write  a  chapter  on  the  future  of  Chris- 
tianity, for  the  thing  hoped  for  will  have  come.  In 
that  day  some  Japanese  Christian  will  say,  as  of  old 
Tertullian  said  to  a  Roman  official :  "  We  are  but  of  yes- 
terday and  yet  we  have  filled  every  place  belonging  to 
you,  cities,  islands,  castles,  towns,  assemblies,  your  very 
camps,  your  tribes,  companies,  palace,  senate,  forum — 
we  leave  you  your  temples  only." 


PART   FOUR 

THE    OPPORTUNITY 


THE   STRATEGIC   IMPORTANCE 
OF   JAPAN 


The  place  to  bring  power  to  bear  is  at  the  point  where 
power  can  be  most  widely  distributed;  and  surely  so  far  as  the 
Far  East  is  concerned,  Japan  is  that  place.— John  R.  Mott, 
"The  World  Call  to  Men  of  To-day." 

Japan  is  the  gateway  of  the  Orient  and  is  to-day  exerting  an 
influence  upon  China  greater  than  the  combined  influence  of  all 
the  European  nations.  Western  civilization  is  likely  to  enter 
China  through  Japan.— William  Jennings  Bryan,  "The  Old 
World  and  Its  Ways." 

Japan  is  peculiarly  fitted  to  become,  in  mental  and  moral,  no 
less  than  in  material  civilization,  the  mediator  between  the  Oc- 
cident and  the  Orient.  Whether  we  will  or  not,  the  words  still 
ring  in  our  ears:  "Japan  leading  the  Orient — but  whither?" — 
Edinburgh  Conference,  1910,  Vol.  I,  p.  51. 

The  situation  in  the  whole  Orient,  in  fact,  constitutes  one  of 
the  most  splendid  opportunities  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the 
gravest  crises  in  the  whole  history  of  the  church.  With  every 
passing  year  the  opportunity  is  slipping  farther  from  her  grasp. 
I  make  bold  to  say  that  her  victory  or  defeat  in  Japan  will 
largely  determine  the  future  of  Christianity  in  the  whole  Far 
East. — Tasuku  Harada,  International  Review  of  MissionSj 
January,  1912,  p.  97. 

This  earth  too  small. 
For  love  divine?     Is  God  not  infinite? 
If  so,  His  love  is  Infinite.    Too  small ! 
I  One  famished  babe  meets  pity  oft  from  man 

More  than  an  army  slain !    Too  small  for  love ! 
Was  earth  too  small  to  be  of  God  created? 
Why  then  too  small  to  be  redeemed? 
— Aubrey  De  Vere,  quoted  in  "  The  Christian  View  of  God 
and  the  World,"  p.  320. 

It  is  extremely  desirable  that  American  Christians  should  once 
more  exercise  the  solicitude  for  the  spiritual  condition  of  this 
island  empire  that  was  so  marked  a  feature  of  their  attitude 
when  the  country  was  first  opened  up  in  the  fifties  and  sixties. 
.  .  .  That  special  effort  should  be  put  forth  to  make  plain  to 
missionary  volunteers  the  urgent  call  to  self-sacrificing  service 
presented  by  the  unevangelized  millions  of  Japan — a  call  second 
to  none  other  in  the  world. — Presbyterian  Missionaries  in  Council, 
August,  1910. 


THE  STRATEGIC  IMPORTANCE  OF  JAPAN 

PORT  ARTHUR  is  some  thousands  of  miles  from 
St.  Petersburg,  and,  strictly  speaking,  always  was 
outside  the  Russian  Empire.  However,  its  fall, 
more  than  any  event  in  a  hundred  years,  has  changed 
the  destiny  of  Russia.  The  citadel,  compared  to  Russia's 
vast  area,  is  inconsiderable,  yet  its  hills  and  valleys  are 
pregnant  with  power.  The  rocks  of  Port  Arthur,  though 
worthless  to  the  miner  or  the  farmer,  are  of  priceless 
value  from  the  point  of  strategy.  There  are  multitudes 
in  the  home  lands  who  are  unconcerned  as  to  the  struggle 
now  going  on  in  the  Orient  between  Christian  and  idola- 
trous forces.  Japan  is  remote  both  from  Europe  and 
North  America,  the  strongholds  of  Christianity.  Both 
from  the  standpoint  of  population  and  area,  Japan  is 
small.  However,  Japan  is  the  Port  Arthur  of  Christen- 
dom. The  Church  cannot  be  indifferent  to  this  strategic 
field.  As  the  battle  goes  in  Japan,  so  may  the  destiny 
of  Christianity  in  eastern  Asia  for  centuries  be  deter- 
mined. 

Japan,  geographically,  is  strategically  located.  The  an- 
cestors of  the  Japanese  were  not  placed  in  the  sands  of 
the  Sahara  or  the  ice  fields  of  Greenland,  because  God 
had  a  great  mission  for  them  to  fulfil  elsewhere.  "  The 
extent  of  the  country  is  not  large,  while  its  soil  is  not 
particularly  fertile  and  its  natural  resources  not  con- 
spicuously rich.  And  yet  in  wealth,  in  commerce,  in 
manufacture,  in  science  and  literature,  in  military  and 
naval  matters ;  in  short,  from  whatever  point  of  view 
you  regard  it,  Great  Britain  occupies  a  unique  and  proud 
position  in  the  world  as  the  greatest  of  the  European 

283 


284?  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

powers."  With  the  change  of  a  few  words,  what  this 
writer  said  of  England  may  be  said  of  Japan  and  eastern 
Asia.  But  Japan  lacks  what  England  has  had  for  cen- 
turies, and  that  is  the  power  and  influence  of  the  Bible 
and  the  Church. 

The  limited  area  for  cultivation  has  driven  the  Japanese 
upon  the  high  seas.  Especially  in  the  Far  East,  at  such 
ports  as  Singapore,  Hongkong,  or  Shanghai,  scarcely  a 
day  passes  that  some  Japanese  ship  does  not  enter  or 
leave  port.  The  expansion  of  the  Japanese  merchant 
marine  is  the  outcome  of  natural  and  economic  causes, 
but  it  is  likewise  indicative  of  power  and  intelligence. 
From  either  power  or  intelligence  goes  forth  the  author- 
ity and  ability  to  influence  others  either  for  good  or  for 
evil. 

Japan's  victory  over  Russia,  her  paternal  government, 
her  schools,  her  industries,  and  the  fact  that  she  is  the 
only  Asiatic  state  that  has  attained  to  world  leadership, 
has  given  her  a  prominence  and  a  preeminence  which  is 
acknowledged  throughout  all  Asia.  Asiatics  from  east 
to  west  praise  her  advancement.  Many  of  them  are 
studying  the  secrets  of  her  achievements,  and  some  are 
fearful  of  the  power  which  she  has  attained.  A  mission- 
ary statesman  of  India  said :  "  Formerly  England  and 
America  influenced  the  thought  of  India  more  than  any 
other  nation.  But  now  Japan  takes  precedence  of  any 
other  country."  And  how  will  this  tremendous  force 
which  Japan  wields  to-day  in  the  eastern  consciousness 
be  directed?  The  bent,  the  sweep,  the  permanence,  and 
the  beneficence  of  that  force  will  depend  upon  Japan's 
moral  and  religious  foundations. 

The  overmastering  desire  in  Japan  is  to  be  abreast  with 
the  best.  Her  special  commissions,  her  travellers,  her 
students  have  searched  the  world  over  for  the  newest, 
the  latest,  and  most  useful.  Consequently  the  industries, 
the  commerce,  the  schools,  and  the  social  life  have 
changed  and  are  changing  with  the  years.     With  the 


STRATEGIC  IMPORTANCE  OF  JAPAN  285 

reception  of  much  that  is  good  and  serviceable,  they  have 
imported  some  things  which  cannot  be  counted  as  bless- 
ings. Among  them  may  be  mentioned  the  negations  of 
materialistic  thought,  the  carelessness  which  overturns 
old  landmarks,  and  the  vanity  that  all  truth  has  been  dis- 
covered and  written  in  recent  books.  A  writer,*  speak- 
ing of  the  last  few  years,  says :  "  It  may  also  be  com- 
pared to  a  seed-time  in  which  all  kinds  of  seed,  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent,  have  been  brought  here  and  planted  in 
such  a  way  that  for  the  present  all  are  growing  and  all 
are  yielding  some  fruit,  each  according  to  its  kind.  Still 
the  harvest  is  only  in  its  most  incipient  stages ;  hence  its 
ultimate  yield  can  only  be  computed  by  the  eye  of  faith." 

Nowhere  else  has  modern  learning  entered  an  Oriental 
land  to  the  extent  that  it  has  entered  Japan.  Here  the 
traveller  is  seldom  out  of  sight  of  a  schoolhouse.  Science 
and  well-established  laws  of  physics  and  psychology  have 
brought  about  a  growing  doubt  in  the  old  religions.  If 
Japan  is  to  make  an  important  and  helpful  impression 
upon  Asia,  she  must  acknowledge  the  overlordship  of 
Him  who  is  the  Light  of  life.  Unless  there  is  a  rapid 
and  spirited  advance  of  Christianity,  the  readjustment  of 
idolatrous  faiths  to  meet  modern  thought  and  the  bolster- 
ing of  nationalism  so  dominant  in  Japan,  may  seriously 
impede  and  long  delay  the  final  triumph  of  the  Cross. 
Intelligent  priests  have  not  only  visited  China  and  Tibet 
in  the  interests  of  Buddhistic  study  and  revival,  but  New 
York  and  London  have  furnished  theoretical  and  prac- 
tical fields  where  the  strength  and  weaknesses  of  Chris- 
tian churches  could  be  investigated  in  order  that  the 
more  vital  features  might  be  grafted  into  their  temples. 

It  may  be  remote,  but  there  will  come  a  day,  notwith- 
standing the  present  diplomatic  understandings  of  Japan 
with  certain  Western  powers,  when  there  will  be  a  close 
drawing  together  of  the  nations  of  the  East.  Witness 
to-day  the  ties  of  friendship  between  England  and  the 

*  J.  M.  T.  Winther,  Japan  Evangelist,  1912. 


286  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

United  States.  It  was  not  always  so.  Stronger  than 
paper  contracts  is  the  tie  based  upon  a  common  language, 
religion,  similarity  of  custom,  and  identity  of  interest. 
To-day  China  may  entertain  certain  fears  of  Japan,  and 
for  years  to  come  they  may  not  see  eye  to  eye,  but  ulti- 
mately the  similarity  of  literature,  ethics,  customs,  and 
interests, — commercial  and  racial^ — make  it  reasonable 
that  Japan  and  China  should  stand  together.  Japan  got 
a  good  start  in  the  race  which  leads  toward  modernization 
and  will  doubtless  maintain  her  place  in  the  lead.  It 
will  mean,  therefore,  much  for  the  millions  of  Asia  and 
Asia's  relation  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  if  Japan's 
temples  shall  have  become  cathedrals  of  the  most  high 
God  and  if  anthems  of  praise  shall  ascend  to  Him  where 
once  was  heard  the  chant  of  priests  and  the  mellow  boom 
of  temple  bells. 

The  East  understands  us  better  than  we  understand 
them.  They  have  sat  in  the  seat  of  the  learned.  They 
have  most  studiously  investigated,  experimented,  and 
rummaged  through  all  that  pertains  to  our  homes,  our 
schools,  our  factories,  our  governments.  We  have  not 
done  the  same  in  the  East,  because  the  West  has  not 
felt  the  need.  We  have  been  too  busy  and  too  satisfied 
with  ourselves.  Occidentals  in  the  East  run  up  against 
an  all  but  insurmountable  barrier  in  the  language.  There 
is  neither  occasion  nor  opportunity  to  enter  the  family 
circle  of  an  Oriental.  Secrecy  and  taciturnity  are  usually 
back  of  the  politeness  and  courtesy  shown  the  foreigner 
who  travels  or  sojourns  in  the  East.  These  conditions 
are  reversed  when  the  Oriental  comes  to  study  the  West 
— the  home  life,  the  language,  society,  religion,  and  the 
engines  of  our  power. 

In  the  final  Christianization  of  the  East,  it  can  be  best 
done  by  Orientals  and  must  be  done  by  Orientals.  It  will 
be  an  immense  gain  for  the  Cross  when  the  day  comes 
that  any  one  Eastern  nation  is  Christianized.  It  would 
be  an  incalculable  gain  if  Japan  should  be  the  first.    Some 


STRATEGIC  IMPORTANCE  OF  JAPAN     287 

nation  is  needed,  and  it  must  be  an  Oriental  nation,  to 
act  as  a  medium,  an  interpreter,  and  a  connecting  link 
between  the  West  and  the  East.  There  is  no  nation 
better  fitted  for  this  service  than  Japan,  and  in  fact 
Japan  is  already  rendering  such  a  service  in  certain  lines. 
If  any  one  doubts  this  statement,  let  him  look  over  the 
registrars  of  foreign  students  in  Japan  and  let  him  take 
into  account  the  Japanese  teachers,  editors,  and  special- 
ists who  have  already  gone  to  the  nations  of  eastern  Asia. 
The  strategic  importance  of  Japan,  therefore,  is  enhanced 
from  the  missionary's  point  of  view,  because  Japan,  be 
she  Christian,  un-Christian,  or  anti-Christian,  is  already 
affecting  eastern  Asia  through  this  interchange  of  men 
in  the  intellectual  world,  not  to  speak  of  impressions  made 
about  Japan  on  the  continent,  through  the  medium  of 
newspaper  reports,  books,  and  moving  pictures. 

In  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  could  have  por- 
trayed the  expansion  of  the  British  Empire  or  the  influ- 
ence of  England  upon  the  world?  Within  a  few  years 
there  has  been  a  great  expansion  of  the  Japanese  Empire. 
The  last  twenty-five  years  have  recorded  a  steady  and 
rapid  advance  in  the  influence  of  Japan  in  the  concert 
of  world-power.  Who  shall  say  that  Japan  has  reached 
the  limit  of  her  expansion  or  the  maximum  of  her  diplo- 
matic energy  ?  For  the  very  reason  that  Japan's  civil  arm 
and  commercial  range  have  been  extended  over  millions 
who  are  alien  to  her  language  and  blood,  it  is  important 
that  she  have  a  constructive  religion  of  hope  and  moral 
perfection,  both  for  herself  and  for  lands  acquired  or 
leased  under  her  sovereignty.  Here  lies  Japan's  weak- 
ness, whether  looked  at  internally  or  externally.  Unless 
she  accepts  Christianity,  there  is  no  other  faith  equal  to 
the  requirements.  Religion  is  not  an  item  of  manu- 
facture. Though  ingenious  and  clever,  no  Japanese  will 
be  able  to  patch  up  a  substitute  for  the  Cross. 

There  is  one  very  significant  item  which  will  count 
powerfully  for  the  Christianization  of  Japan.    For  forty 


288  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

years  Japan  has  had  her  face  more  toward  the  Occident 
than  the  Orient.  There  is  no  express  purpose  or  secret 
intention  of  becoming  Occidental.  Such  a  thought  was 
far  from  the  plans  of  the  statesmen  at  the  dawn  of  the 
Meiji  Era.  But  since  the  opening  of  the  last  era,  a  new 
generation  has  been  born  and  matured.  A  second  gen- 
eration has  been  born  and  is  in  the  act  of  maturing. 
From  these  two  generations  there  have  come  many  who 
have  parted  with  the  sprites  and  ghosts  of  Japanese  super- 
stitions. These  have  travelled  and  read  enough  to  know 
much  about  Occidental  weaknesses — the  greed,  the  haste, 
the  commercialism,  and  the  pomp  of  militarism.  And 
yet,  though  they  constitute  the  minority,  they  have  been 
keen  enough  to  observe  that  our  happy  homes,  the  honour 
shown  women,  the  care  for  child  life,  the  optimism  of 
youth,  the  prosperity  of  labourers,  the  opportunities  for 
advancement  open  to  every  one,  the  songs  of  triumph 
and  hymns  of  immortal  hope  are  due  to  one  great  cause — 
the  Nazarene.  It,  therefore,  will  not  be  a  surprise  if 
some  day  Japan  finds  that  she  has  drifted  westward 
further  than  she  intended  and  in  all  humility  cries, 
"  Nazarene,  thou  hast  conquered." 

Thousands  in  Japan,  and  among  them  are  leaders  of 
state,  have  come  to  the  time  when  they  are  asking  them- 
selves what  shall  we  do  with  Jesus,  "  who  is  called 
Christ  ?  "  Upon  this  decision  hangs  the  peace,  the  tran- 
quillity, the  life,  the  destiny  of  Japan.  No  non-Christian 
nation  in  the  last  thousand  years  has  had  a  better  oppor- 
tunity to  accept  Christ.  Of  the  non-Christian  nations, 
few  if  any  could  rise  higher  or  be  greater  blessed  by 
Christ's  abundant  life;  and  by  rejecting  Him  not  one 
would  suffer  more  severely.  These  are  momentous  days 
for  Japan.  Japan,  and  not  Christ,  is  on  trial.  The  prize 
is  so  great  and  so  much  is  involved  in  Japan's  decision 
that  the  entire  Christian  world  ought  unitedly  and  inces- 
santly pray — God  Save  Japan. 


II 

THE   WIDE-OPEN    DOOR 


It  is  now,  I  believe,  generally  recognized  that  if  Japan,  in  any 
true  sense  of  the  word,  is  to  be  Christianized  in  this  generation, 
a  very  large  increase  in  the  force,  both  foreign  and  native,  is 
an  absolute  prerequisite. — E.  A.  Van  Dyke,  Japan  Evangelist, 
February,  1912. 

The  moment  which  we  are  now  living  is  a  critical  moment, 
or  perhaps  the  most  critical  moment  that  has  ever  been  in  the 
history  of  the  non-Christian  races — most  significant  and  weighty 
upon  their  fate  and  their  future. — Ambassador  Bryce,  Men  and 
Missions,  November  18,  1909. 

In  no  country  in  the  world  is  there  given  a  freer  hand  in 
the  propagation  of  any  religion,  the  workers  being  fully  pro- 
tected by  the  Constitution.  In  a  country  like  Japan,  where  the 
state  and  people  are  governed  by  a  spirit  of  nationalism,  the 
principles  of  Christianity  are  most  suited.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  missionaries  will  redouble  their  energies  and  zeal  in  pro- 
moting the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  Japanese. — Kokumin 
Newspaper  Editorial. 

Ye  Christians  o'er  the  sea, 

In  homes  where  Christ  is  free 

Pray  for  Japan. 
Pray  that  her  sons  may  stand 
For  Christ  a  noble  band, 
Pray  for  this  favoured  land, 

Pray  for  Japan. 

Pray  for  her  liberty 
From  dark  idolatry, 

Pray  for  Japan. 

Pray  that  her  daughters  all 

May  heed  the  Saviour's  call ; 

Pray  that  her  temples  fall. 

Pray  for  Japan. 

Pray  for  Christ's  love  to  win 
Power  o'er  this  country's  sin. 

Pray  for  Japan. 
Pray  that  her  praise  ascend 
To  God,  the  nation's  Friend, 
His  mighty  Word  defend, 
Pray  for  Japan. 

— Mrs.  Carme  Hostetter  Smeyser. 


II 

THE  WIDE-OPEN  DOOR 

FIFTY  years  ago  there  was  not  a  single  Japanese 
convert,  not  a  church  nor  a  school  building;  not 
a  single  hymn  had  been  translated,  nor  had  any 
portion  of  the  Scriptures  been  published  in  Japan.  A 
little  band  of  missionaries,  who  were  watched  by  gov- 
ernmental spies,  were  struggling  with  the  language,  and 
every  conceivable  hindrance  and  obstruction  was  laid 
in  their  way.  Christianity  was  both  hated  and  for- 
bidden. Prison  and  death  threatened  any  one  who 
should  ever  be  found  conversing  or  corresponding  about 
Christianity.  But  with  the  passing  of  fifty  years,  what 
marvellous  and  sweeping  changes  have  come.  The  atti- 
tude of  the  Government  and  of  the  people  and  of  the 
priests  of  ancient  religions  have  all  changed.  That  all 
these  changes  should  have  taken  place  in  the  experience 
of  a  number  who  are  still  standard  bearers  in  our  midst 
is  a  matter  for  which  we  can  but  praise  God  and  say, 
"  What  hath  God  wrought?  " 

One  of  the  most  striking  changes  is  the  gradual  re- 
moval of  prejudice  against  Christianity.  Men  like 
Bryan,  Torrey,  Hall,  Heinz,  Brown,  and  Mott  have  been 
given  ovations  in  various  cities,  and  tens  of  thousands 
have  listened  to  their  full  and  frank  statement  of  faith 
in  the  Nazarene.  The  college  which  Neesima  founded 
was  recently  given  the  rank  of  a  university.  Eminent 
educators  and  officials  were  present.  "  Letters  and  tele- 
grams of  congratulation  were  received  from  Prince 
Yamagata,  Count  Inouye,  Count  Okama,  Viscount 
Uchida  (Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs),  Prince  Katsura, 
Count  Matsukata,  Baron  Shibusawa."  *    In  April,  1907, 

*  H.  Loomis,  "  The  New  Era  in  Japan,"' 

291 


292  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

Japan  had  her  first  international  convention  of  any  char- 
acter. It  was  the  conference  of  the  World's  Student 
Christian  Federation.  Special  receptions  were  tendered 
it  by  the  city,  by  Count  Okuma,  by  Baron  Goto,  and 
greetings  were  sent  to  it  by  conferences  of  Buddhist  and 
Shinto  priests.  A  telegram  from  Prince  Ito  read :  "  As- 
sure them  of  the  lively  interest  I  take  in  their  conference, 
which  will  ever  remain  one  of  the  most  memorable 
events  in  the  history  of  Japan.  It  ushers  in  a  new  era 
in  the  history  of  intercourse  between  the  East  and  the 
West."  The  World's  Sunday  School  Commission, 
headed  by  H.  J.  Heinz  and  Frank  L.  Brown,  on  their 
way  to  the  Zurich  Convention,  spent  six  weeks  in  Japan ; 
the  entire  party  of  twenty-nine  members  was  enter- 
tained by  Count  Okuma  and  given  an  elaborate  banquet 
by  Baron  Shibusawa.  At  Tokyo,  as  well  as  many  other 
cities,  the  party  was  given  hearty  receptions  at  chambers 
of  commerce  and  churches,  where  they  pleaded  the 
merits  of  the  Sunday  School. 

When  I  was  a  boy  I  used  to  spend  hours  in  a  black- 
smith shop  situated  across  the  street  from  our  home. 
The  bellows  and  the  sparks  which  the  smith  wholly  dis- 
regarded were  always  a  wonder  to  my  youthful  mind. 
But  the  most  striking  impression  was  how  vigorously 
he  beat  the  iron  while  it  was  hot.  Not  a  minute  was 
wasted.  He  never  paused  to  talk  or  take  a  smoke,  but 
blow  upon  blow  he  fairly  rained  upon  the  plastic  iron. 
And  Japan  to-day  is  in  a  plastic  condition.  Every  door 
is  open,  and  opportunity  stands  beckoning  in  the  cour- 
teous words  of  statesmen  and  in  the  sweet  face  of  every 
child. 

Through  good  and  evil  report  Christianity  has  re- 
ceived a  tremendous  lot  of  advertising  in  the  last  few 
years.  A  university  professor  has  written  a  book  on 
"  The  Evils  of  Christianity."  A  Buddhist  priest  who 
bought  a  Bible,  said  he  wanted  to  learn  something  about 
the  religion  which  "  every  one  was  making  such  a  fuss 


THE  WIDE-OPEN  DOOR  293 

about."  It  has  not  been  long  since  twelve  anarchists 
were  put  to  death  and  many  others  imprisoned  for  a 
serious  plot  whose  details  were  never  given  to  the  public, 
owing  to  a  secret  trial.  Among  the  number  were  two 
who  had  been  church  members.  One  had  been  formerly 
expelled  and  the  other  had  lost  his  faith.  For  a  time, 
some  Japanese  preachers  were  suspected  and  their  move- 
ments were  watched  by  special  detectives.  The  leader 
of  the  band,  who  was  among  the  number  sentenced 
to  death,  wrote  a  book  which  was  published.  Its 
title  was  "  The  Non-Existence  of  Christ."  And  thus 
it  became  known  through  the  length  and  breadth  of 
Japan  that  the  banner  of  the  Cross  and  the  red 
banner  of  anarchy  could  never  be  borne  by  the  same 
hand. 

The  visit  of  General  Booth,  in  1907,  was  an  occasion 
never  to  be  forgotten.  Since  the  visit  of  General  Grant, 
it  is  doubtful  if  any  foreigner  has  ever  received  such 
an  ovation.  Crowds,  which  on  various  occasions  num- 
bered more  than  ten  thousand,  assembled  at  stations  to 
meet  him.  He  passed  under  welcome  arches,  and  in  the 
skies  above  the  explosion  of  fireworks  announced  to 
multitudes  that  he,  the  leader  of  the  Salvation  Army, 
was  one  whom  the  nation  delighted  to  honour. 

When  Oklahoma  was  opened  years  ago,  a  great  crowd 
was  gathered  on  the  border-line  for  the  grand  rush. 
When  the  day  came,  away  they  went,  some  on  foot,  some 
on  mules,  some  in  buggies,  and  some  in  lumber  wagons. 
When  they  arrived  at  their  coveted  patch  of  dirt,  they 
wasted  no  time  in  staking  out  their  claims.  Oh,  that  the 
Church  of  the  living  God  were  as  wise  and  as  earnest 
to-day  for  the  Kingdom  of  God  as  were  those  squatters 
for  their  homesteads!  In  Japan  to-day,  one  finds  the 
Mohammedan  proselyter,  the  literature  of  the  The- 
osophist,  the  advocate  of  every  theory  known  to  the 
Twentieth  Century.  The  hearts  and  the  ears  of  the  people 
are  not  only  open,  but  there  is  a  growing  sympathy  and 


294  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

inclination  to  regard  the  religion  of  Jesus  as  the  best 
of  all.* 

A  mighty  boost  for  the  Christian  cause  was  the  mem- 
orable Conference  of  three  religions  in  February,  1912. 
It  is  too  early  to  judge  of  the  full  significance  of  the 
conference,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  immediate  effect 
has  been  an  immense  gain  for  Christian  forces.  The 
Conference  was  called  by  Takejiro  Tokonami,  the  Vice 
Minister  of  Home  Affairs,  after  securing  the  approval 
of  the  Cabinet  and  Elder  Statesmen.  He  had  travelled 
in  the  Occident  and  is  the  author  of  a  book  in  Japanese 
called  "  Impressions  of  Europe  and  America."  He  be- 
came convinced  that  henceforth  the  Government  cannot 
afford  to  ignore  religion  entirely  if  the  state  be  strong 
and  morally  sound. f  So  he  took  the  bold  step  of  calling 
the  Conference.  There  were  thirteen  Shinto  and  fifty- 
one  Buddhist  priests,  and  seven  representatives  of  Chris- 

*  The  present  religious  condition  of  Japan  presents  before  our 
eyes  an  epitome  of  the  religious  development  of  the  human 
race.  Fetichism,  Shintoism,  Buddhism  (with  its  manifold 
divisions),  Unitarianism,  Deism,  Pantheism,  Naturalism,  Athe- 
ism, Agnosticism,  Spiritualism,  Socialism,  and  anarchy,  all  reli- 
gions and  movements  are  represented  here,  a  grim  spectacle  of 
a  nation's  struggles. — Bishop  A.  Lea,  Missionary  Review  of 
the  World,  September,  1912,  p.  701. 

t  At  the  time  of  the  Conference  of  Religions,  several  state- 
ments were  given  by  Mr.  Tokonami,  among  which  are  the  fol- 
lowing: "It  is  felt  necessary  to  give  religion  an  additional 
power  and  dignity.  At  present  moral  doctrine  is  inculcated  by 
education  alone,  but  it  is  impossible  to  inculcate  firmly,  fair,  and 
upright  ideas  in  the  mind  of  the  nation  unless  the  people  are 
brought  into  touch  with  the  fundamental  conception  known  as 
God,  Buddha,  or  Heaven,  as  taught  in  religion.  .  .  .  The  pri- 
mary intention  in  holding  the  Conference  is  to  direct  attention 
to  religion  as  a  necessary  means  to  the  highest  spiritual  and 
moral  welfare  of  both  the  individual  and  the  nation.  For  a 
number  of  years  this  matter  has  not  been  given  the  importance 
that  properly  belongs  to  it;  and  the  primary  purpose  of  the 
Conference  is  to  reassert  that  importance.  .  .  .  Shinto  and 
Buddhism  have  long  had  a  recognized  place  as  religions  of  the 


THE  WIDE-OPEN  DOOR  295 

tianity.*  The  number  representing  the  churches,  deter- 
mined by  the  Government,  were  manifold  more  than  they 
should  have  been  had  the  representation  been  based  upon 
the  actual  number  of  their  respective  constituencies. 
The  Buddhist  priests  came  in  their  official  robes,  and 
at  the  banquet  after  the  Conference,  ate  at  a  separate 
table  set  solely  with  vegetable  delicacies.  The  Confer- 
ence was  an  announcement  to  the  world  and  to  every 
Japanese  that  Christianity  had  officially,  at  least,  won 
full  and  worthy  recognition. 

Scarcely  had  newspaper  comment  about  the  Conference 
ceased  until  the  nation  was  saddened  by  the  Emperor's 
sickness.  The  whole  nation  humbled  itself  in  prayer. 
All  day  and  all  night  great  crowds,  numbering  thou- 
sands, could  be  found  in  the  park  below  the  Emperor's 
Palace,  beseeching  with  tears  that  their  beloved  sov- 
ereign might  live.  Multitudes  who  had  abandoned  prayer 
now  flocked  to  temples  and  shrines  for  intercession.  And 
thus  His  Majesty,  the  Emperor,  who  in  life  had  bestowed 
Imperial  gifts  upon  his  children,  even  in  death  con- 
tinued to  bless  them  in  that  the  hearts  of  millions  were 
sobered  by  a  great  national  sorrow.  Their  sorrow  was 
softened  by  gratitude  because  of  the  sincere  evidences 
of  sympathy  expressed  by  numerous  letters  and  tele- 
grams of  condolence  from  the  noble  and  great  of  all 
nations.  Especially  the  envoys  to  the  Imperial  funeral 
sent  by  Germany,  England,  France,  Spain,  and  the  United 
States  impressed  Japan  that  Christian  powers  have  a 

Japanese  people.  Christianity  should  also  be  accorded  a  similar 
place." 

Reviews  of  the  Conference  may  be  found  in  the  March  and 
April  Japan  Evangelist  for  1912,  and  the  Journal  of  Race  De- 
velopment, October,  1912. 

*The  names  of  the  Christian  delegates  were  libuka,  Hodda, 
Miyagawa,  Chiba,  Motoda,  Honjo,  Ishikawa,  representing  re- 
spectively the  Presbyterian,  the  Methodist,  the  Congregational, 
the  Baptist,  the  Episcopalian,  the  Roman  Catholic,  and  the 
Greek  bodies  in  Japan. 


296  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

gracious  and  kindly  spirit  as  well  as  the  commercial 
and  military  element.* 

When  the  late  Emperor,  Meiji  Tenno,  had  ascended 
his  throne,  he  gave  the  people  an  Imperial  Oath  of  five 
articles,!  in  which  he  decreed  that  "  knowledge  and 
learning  shall  be  sought  after  throughout  the  whole 
world,"  and  "  all  purposeless  and  useless  customs  being 
discarded,  justice  and  righteousness  shall  be  the  guide  of 
all  actions."  He  took  for  the  special  name  or  character- 
istic of  his  reign  the  word  Meiji,  which  means  enlighten- 
ment, which,  in  one  word,  embodied  the  fifth  article  of 
the  Imperial  oath. 

The  reigning  Emperor  has  chosen  the  word  Taisho 
for  the  special  word  for  his  reign.  As  the  word  Taisho 
means  Great  Righteousness,  Christian  workers,  there- 
fore, have  reason  for  thanksgiving,  because  Taisho  is 
but  the  embodiment  in  a  single  word  of  the  fourth  article 
of  the  oath  of  his  father.  It  is  an  indication  that  the 
noted  Imperial  Oath  is  not  forgotten,  that  the  Constitu- 
tion will  be  maintained,  and  that  His  Imperial  Majesty 
will  exalt  righteousness  and  look  with  favour  upon  every 
effort  or  movement  in  harmony  with  so  exalted  an  ex- 
pression of  his  sovereign  reign. 

In  1905,  during  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  the  Emperor 
gave  his  first  gift  to  a  Christian  institution,  $5,000  to 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work  in  Manchuria.  From  a  letter  of 
thanks  sent  by  General  Terauchi,  then  Minister  of  War, 
we  read :  "  I  take  this  opportunity  to  express  my  heartfelt 
thanks  for  your  noble  services."  For  six  years  past 
the  government  has  given  $5,000  yearly  to  the  Y.  M. 

*  Germany  was  represented  by  Prince  Henry,  the  Emperor's 
brother;  England  by  Prince  Arthur  of  Connaught;  France  by 
Lieutenant-General  Lebon;  Spain  by  Prince  Don  Alfonso  D'Or- 
leans,  and  the  United  States  by  Hon.  Philander  P.  Knox,  Secre- 
tary of  State. 

t  See  Appendix  F  for  articles  in  full,  taken  from  a  translation 
found  in  "  Life  of  Japan,"  p.  179. 


THE  WIDE-OPEN  DOOR  297 

C.  A.  in  Seoul  and  $i,ooo  yearly  to  the  Christian  orphan- 
age at  Okayama,  besides  many  other  donations  in  various 
places.*  These  donations  for  Christian  work  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, coupled  with  the  lives  of  worthy  and  eminent 
Christian  men  in  the  Imperial  service,  have  been  mighty 
factors  in  the  recommendation  of  Christianity.  Out- 
spoken words  of  praise  have  been  published  far  and 
wide,  which  have  helped  to  arrest  attention  and  gain  a 
hearing  for  the  Gospel.  Baron  Maejima,  a  former 
postmaster-general,  said :  "  When  I  look  about  me  to  see 
what  religion  we  may  best  rely  upon,  I  am  convinced 
that  the  religion  of  Christ  is  the  one  most  full  of  strength 
and  promise  for  the  nation  and  the  individual."  A 
counsellor  for  the  Government,  Kosuke  Tomeoka,  said : 
"  When  I  was  eighteen  years  old,  owing  to  my  belief 
in  Christianity,  I  was  expelled  from  my  home  and  na- 
tive city,  but  Wonderful  as  it  may  seem,  all  of  my 
family  and  some  of  my  relatives  have  since  repented  of 
their  sins  and  believed  in  Christ.  .  .  .  We  cannot  expect 
to  elevate  and  deepen  our  nation's  morality  without 
Christianity,  not  to  speak  of  the  reformation  of  society." 
Just  as  the  duckling  takes  to  the  water,  just  as  the 
bird  to  the  air,  and  just  as  the  rose  turns  its  petals  to 
the  kisses  of  the  sun,  so  the  heart  of  man  ever  turns 
to  Jesus,  if  but  Jesus  he  may  see,  if  but  Jesus  he  may 
know,  if  but  upon  Jesus  he  may  have  the  opportunity 
to  believe.  God  has  opened  the  doors  in  Japan  wider 
than  the  most  optimistic  dared  to  dream  forty  years  ago. 
Just  think  of  it !  Fifty-three  million  standing  in  the 
door,  waiting,  waiting!  There  is  little  more  that  we 
could  ask  on  the  part  of  the  people  or  the  Government 
in  the  way  of  opportunity.  "  All  things  are  ready ! " 
But  the  sad,  sad  thought  is, — where  are  the  labourers? 
Who  shall  give  the  message,  "  Come  to  the  marriage 
feast?" 

*  See  Appendix  G  for  list  of  the  Imperial  household  and  gov- 
ernmental gifts. 


Ill 

PROBLEMS   AND    DIFFICULTIES 


There  are  very  sobering  problems  lurking  in  the  Far  East, 
and  if  Christendom  would  deal  wisely  with  them  there  is  no 
better,  safer,  and  easier  way  to  forestall  possible  trouble  than 
to  annex  spiritually  Eastern  hearts  in  the  bonds  of  the  Gospel, 
and  thus  to  show  in  the  spirit  of  our  diplomacy  that  we  are 
disciples  of  "  The  Golden  Rule." — James  S.  Dennis,  "  The 
New  Horoscope  of  Missions,"  p.  187. 

It  would  be  an  easy  thing  for  the  whole  church,  or  even 
half  of  the  church,  to  take  Jesus  fully  out  to  all  the  world. 
But  may  I  tell  you  now  plainly  that  it  won't  be  an  easy  thing? 
Somebody  will  have  to  sacrifice  if  the  thing  is  to  be  done,  and 
that  somebody  will  be  you  if  you  go  along  where  the  Master 
calls. — S.  D.  Gordon,  "  Quiet  Talks  with  World  Winners,  p.  278. 

Oh,  it  is  hard  to  work  for  God, 

To  rise  and  take  His  part 
Upon  the  battlefield  of  earth 

And  not  sometimes  lose  heart! 

Workmen  of  God !     Oh,  lose  not  heart 

But  learn  what  God  is  like; 
And  in  the  darkest  battlefield 

Thou  shalt  know  where  to  strike. 

For  right  is  right,  since  God  is  God, 

And  right  the  day  must  win ; 
To  doubt  would  be  disloyalty, 

To  falter  would  be  sin. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  important  for  every  one  concerned  to 
realize  that  the  Christianization  of  Japan  is  no  holiday  task; 
indeed,  it  is  certain  to  be  a  long  and  severe  campaign.  Since 
Christianity  assimilated  Greek  thought  and  conquered  Roman 
civilization,  it  has  never  faced  a  task  so  stupendous  as  that  of 
the  conquest  of  the  Orient.  Japan,  with  all  her  progress  in  the 
arts  and  crafts  of  civilization  and  all  her  friendliness  toward 
Christian  ethical  standards,  is  far  from  being  a  Christian  na- 
tion ;  indeed,  she  is  in  some  respects  more  anti-Christian  than 
at  any  time  since  the  placards  proscribing  The  Evil  Sect  were 
removed  in  1873. — Tasuku  Harada,  International  Review  of 
Missions,  January,  1912,  p.  97. 


Ill 

PROBLEMS  AND  DIFFICULTIES 

THE  reader  of  this  book,  who  may  have  stood 
above  the  Whirlpool  below  the  Rapids  at  Ni- 
agara, will  remember  the  eddies  and  cross- 
currents in  the  water  below.  The  irregular  movements 
and  the  back  currents  of  the  waters  as  shown  by  the 
bobbing  and  diving  of  logs,  represents  the  religious  and 
moral  situation  to-day  in  Japan.  It  must  not  be  for- 
gotten that  the  waters  flow  on  and  that  the  big  movement 
is  the  forward  movement.  However,  it  may  look  dis- 
tressing and  sometimes  very  discouraging  if  we  simply 
look  on  the  surface.  Occidentals  must  not  forget  that 
conservatism,  ancient  prejudices,  and  fears  against  Chris- 
tianity yet  remain  in  Japan.  Calculation  must  be  made 
of  the  millions  upon  millions  who  are  ardently  bound 
to  the  old  faiths,  and  a  further  fact,  that  Christianity 
is  uncompromising  and  calls  for  a  surrender  more 
sweeping  than  either  Buddhism  or  Shintoism  would  ask. 
With  these  things  in  mind  we  can  get  a  little  the  idea 
confronting  the  statesman  of  Japan,  who  seeks  to  strike 
a  balance  and  be  liberal  and  just  with  the  Christian 
forces  which  constitute,  in  reality,  but  a  small  propor- 
tion of  the  population. 

As  an  example,  two  years  ago  "  the  Educational  and 
Home  Ministers,  in  their  addresses,  dwelt  upon  the  im- 
portance of  paying  respect  to  Shinto  shrines,  and  told 
the  Governors  that  they  should  take  steps  to  encourage 
the  time-old  custom  of  reverencing  the  native  deities."  * 
The  result  was  that  all  over  the  country  children  were 
ordered  by  their  school  teachers  to  go  to  near-by  shrines 

*  Japan  Times  editorial,  April  i6,  1912. 

301 


802  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

for  worship.  Christians  became  alarmed.  And  even 
non-Christians  pondered  if  it  were  not  unconstitutional. 
The  incident  should  not  be  judged  as  a  movement 
against  Christianity;  but  coming  as  it  did,  just  after 
the  trial  of  the  anarchists,  it  was  a  desperate  move  on 
the  part  of  the  Government  to  stay  the  rising  tide  of 
immorality  and  lapse  of  religious  faith.  The  incident 
showed  that  the  Government  was  more  solicitous  for 
religion  than  the  people,  who  needed  to  be  boosted  to 
approach  heaven  by  the  only  route  familiar  to  them. 

There  are  two  problems,  either  of  which  may  at  any 
time  come  to  prominence.  The  one  is  Shintoism,  the 
other  is  the  desire  on  the  part  of  many  Japanese  for  a 
composite  religion  containing  the  best  of  Buddhism,  Con- 
fucianism, and  Christianity.  Such  Japanese  would 
agree  with  the  Bahaist  that  "  all  religions  derive  from 
one  single  divine  source.  The  form  which  each  has 
assumed  is  of  little  consequence.  What  is  essential  is 
the  fundamental  truth  it  enshrines.  The  Bible,  the 
Koran,  the  Vedas,  are  all  the  word  of  God." 

There  are  two  forms  of  Shintoism,  the  one  popular 
Shintoism,  termed  a  religion,  and  the  other  a  Shintoism 
which  has  the  patronage  of  the  State,  which  has  of- 
ficially been  dismantled  as  a  religion  and  is  govern- 
mentally  considered  simply  a  national  cult.  But  the 
masses  of  Japan  practically  draw  no  lines  of  separation 
between  these  two  forms  of  Shintoism.  A  Japanese 
writer  says  of  the  State  Shintoism :  "  Its  connection  with 
the  Imperial  House  and  with  ancestral  worship  gen- 
erally, gives  it  great  strength."  Another  writer  says : 
"  Christianity  condemns  the  worship  of  the  Ise  gods  as 
idolatry  and  thus  undermines  the  basis  of  our  State." 
The  matter  came  into  prominence  when  Prof.  B.  H. 
Chamberlain,  a  well-known  scholar  and  author  on  things 
Japanese,  published  an  article  on  "  The  Invention  of 
a    New    Religion."  *     Professor    Chamberlain    affirmed 

♦The  article  appeared  first  in  the  Literary  Guide. 


GATEWAY  INTO  ASAKUSA  TEMPLE 


MAIX  SHRINE  AT  SHINSHOTI  TEMPLE 


PROBLEMS  AND  DIFFICULTIES        303 

that :  "  Mikado  worship  and  Japan  worship "  were  at 
the  basis  of  a  new  religion  in  process  of  being  developed 
in  Japan.  Professor  Chamberlain  quoted  Baron  Oura, 
Minister  of  Agriculture  and  Commerce  as  saying:  "  If  it 
is  considered  that  our  country  needs  a  religious  faith, 
then  I  say,  let  it  be  converted  to  a  belief  in  the  religion 
of  patriotism  and  loyalty,  the  religion  of  Imperialism — 
in  other  words,  to  Emperor-worship."  A  member  of 
the  House  of  Peers  recently  wrote :  "  In  Japan  the  Em- 
peror is  the  direct  descendant  of  Ameno-minakanushi-no 
Kami,  the  centre  of  the  world.  Hence  the  Imperial 
family,  being  a  divine  race,  is  entirely  different  from 
races  of  other  Japanese."  * 

The  semi-divine  or  divine  character  given  the  Em- 
perors of  Japan  by  some  men  of  eminence,  as  well  as 
many  among  the  common  people,  has  doubtless  had  its 
influence  in  delaying  the  spread  of  Christianity.  Nor 
can  we  but  sympathize  with  such  as  do  not  know  the 
love  of  Christ  and  the  blessings  of  His  spiritual  sway,  if 
some  Japanese  have  misgivings  when  foreigners  speak 
about  a  Jewish  peasant  as  King  of  Kings,  who  asks  for 
a  surrender  of  all,  even  life  itself.  Happily  Christian 
leaders  and  Christians  in  general  have  conducted  them- 
selves so  discreetly  that  none,  even  their  enemies,  have 
been  more  loyal  to  the  Imperial  House.  Last  year  the 
Sunday  School  Convention  at  Tokyo  marched  from  a 
mass  meeting  to  the  park  below  the  Imperial  Palace. 
Each  child  carried  a  green  flag  on  which  was  the  em- 
blem of  the  Cross.  There  was  a  Christian  chorus  of 
fully  five  thousand,  who  sang  "  Jesus  Loves  Me  "  and 
"  Hail  to  the  Flag  of  Beloved  Japan."  A  balloon  was 
sent  up  with  a  streamer  bearing  the  words  "  God  Is 
Love."  They  shouted  their  banzais  for  His  Majesty,  the 
Emperor,  and  sang  the  national  anthem,  and  there  in 
plain  sight  above  them  was  hoisted  a  red  ensign  as  the 
Imperial  recognition  of  their  patriotism. 

*  See  Japan  Advertiser,  April  12,  1912. 


304.  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

There  is  a  strong  nationalistic  temper  in  Japan  which 
on  three  occasions  has  had  a  profound  and  insistent 
expression  upon  religious  issues.  The  first  was  the 
incorporation  of  Shinto  deities  some  centuries  ago  in 
the  Buddhist  family  of  gods.  The  second  was  the  per- 
secution against  Catholicism,  running  a  little  over  two 
and  a  half  centuries.  The  third  is  the  popularity  of 
Shintoism,  manifested  in  the  revival  of  Shinto  burial 
rites,  marriage  ceremonies,  and  the  expulsion  of  Bud- 
dhist relics  and  idols  from  Shinto  temples  some  years 
ago.  Alongside  a  strictly  evangelical  church  conform- 
ing in  non-essentials  to  Japanese  temper,  there  has,  in 
late  years,  developed  a  danger  that  a  mongrel  sort  of 
organization  may  be  formed,  claiming  to  be  Christian, 
and  yet  liberal  enough  to  admit  traditions,  ethics,  and 
rituals  dear  to  the  heart  of  Shintoists,  Buddhists,  and 
the  Confucianists. 

A  Japanese  writer  says :  "  The  attempt  to  extend  the 
power  of  Christianity  by  adapting  it  to  the  nation  to 
make  it  acceptable  by  conforming  to  national  customs 
is  like  building  a  house  upon  sand.  This  is  Christianity 
without  the  Cross."  *  However,  that  such  a  compromise 
organization  may  appear  in  the  future  is  within  possi- 
bility because  of  the  imitation  of  Christian  methods  and 
a  national  desire  for  a  religious  compromise.  Count 
Okuma  said  at  the  World's  Student  Conference,  in 
speaking  of  the  Japanese :  "  And  if  I  am  not  mistaken, 
their  contribution  will  not  be  limited  to  Christianity  nor 
to  Buddhism  or  Confucianism,  but  they  shall  create  a 
universal  religion."  f 

*  Japan  Evangelist,  May,  1905. 

t  Student  Christian  Federation  Convention,  Tokyo,  p.  186.  As 
noted  in  the  Advertiser  of  September  20,  191 1,  a  Buddhist 
writes :  "  I  am  not  satisfied  with  the  union  of  the  various  sects  of 
Buddhism,  but  advocate  a  union  of  Buddhism  and  Christianity." 
Hiroyuki  Kato  says :  "  I  think  it  is  not  impossible  to  harmonize 
Christianity  and  Buddhism.  Indeed,  if  we  take  the  spirit 
without  adhering  to  the  letter — for  it  is  the  letter  that  killeth 


PROBLEMS  AND  DIFFICULTIES         305 

It  is  said  that  the  Buddhists  have  revised  the  song, 
"  Jesus  Loves  Me,"  and  they  sing  it  "  Buddha  Loves 
Me  This  I  Know."  There  is  a  Young  Men's  Buddhist 
Association  in  Japan  as  well  as  a  Young  Men's  Christian 
Association.  This  imitation  of  things  Christian  is  a  con- 
fession of  weakness,  and  yet  Christians  cannot  be  un- 
concerned for  the  passing  of  things  Christian  with  a 
Buddhist  stamp  has  the  evil  of  all  counterfeits,  the  folly 
of  all  patchwork.*  "  No  man  rendeth  a  piece  from 
a  new  garment  and  putteth  it  upon  an  old  garment,"  and 
yet  the  Japanese  may  try  the  experiment  on  an  extensive 
scale — who  knows? 

The  evangelization  of  Japan  is  a  proposition  beset  by 
problems  not  to  be  encountered  in  preaching  the  Gospel 
to  the  natives  of  a  coral  island  or  to  a  tribe  hidden  in 
some  mountain  fastness  or  tropical  forest.  Japan  is 
a  world  in  itself,  and  the  victory  for  Christianity  would 
reconstruct  the  art,  change  the  literature,  modify  the 
vocabulary,  introduce  a  new  standard  of  ethics,  a  new 
view  of  life,  of  God,  and  immortality.  The  inertia  of 
what  is  old  and  thoroughly  rooted  in  habit,  life,  and 
thought  is  too  often  a  hindrance  to  the  establishment  of 

and  the  spirit  maketh  alive — I  believe  that  this  harmony  is 
already  an  accomplished  fact.  This  thought  grows  deeper  the 
more  religion  is  studied  scientifically.  I  believe  that  I  am  a 
Christian  and  a  Buddhist  at  the  same  time." — See  Japan  Evan- 
gelist for  July,  1912.  "  Whenever  we  come  to  consider  the 
subject  in  all  its  relations  we  cannot  help  feeling  as  if  we 
were  gazing  on  the  last  stage  of  a  happy  termination  of  the 
long-pursued  hostilities  between  Buddhism  and  Christianity,  now 
going  hand  in  hand  in  reconciliation  and  harmony,  even  draw- 
ing to  a  happy  day  of  union." — Japan  Times,  April  15,  1910. 

*  "  Do  you  know  the  way  the  people  are  talking  now  in  Tokyo 
and  this  vicinity  about  Christianity?  Do  you  understand  why 
it  is  harder  than  usual  to  get  '  the  man  in  the  street '  to  listen 
to  the  Gospel  message?  It  is  because  more  than  ever  the  idea 
is  abroad  that  Christianity  and  Buddhism  are  not  very  unlike 
and  that  one  is  as  good  as  the  other." — A  Japanese  writer,  Japan 
Evangelist  for  November,  1912,  p.  524. 


306  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

the  Church.  Nor  is  the  conservatism  of  the  past  the 
only  thing  which  taxes  the  wisdom  and  strength  of  the 
Christian  teacher.  The  printing  press,  which  has  given 
us  milUons  of  Bibles,  has  flooded  the  world  with  infidel 
and  anti-Christian  thought.  There  is  not  a  doubt,  there 
is  not  a  destructive  criticism,  not  an  adverse  current 
emanating  from  a  Rousseau,  a  Haeckel,  a  Spencer,  but 
sooner  or  later  it  reaches  and  spreads  over  Japan.* 
So,  coupled  with  the  pantheism,  pessimism,  and  mythol- 
ogy which  is  natural  to  the  East,  the  Christian  worker 
is  confronted  by  the  books  of  Westerners  which  de- 
throne the  Christ  and  scoff  at  the  revelations  of  proph- 
ets and  apostles. 

There  are  multitudes  in  Japan  who  have  never  recov- 
ered from  the  hatred  and  fear  of  Christianity  that  began 
with  the  persecutions  of  leyasu.  "  The  Evil  Sect "  is 
still,  by  many,  considered  most  dangerous.  Christianity 
goes  under  the  title  of  "  The  foreigners'  religion."  It 
is  often  considered  abstract,  difficult,  and  buried  in  the 
intricacies  of  philosophy  and  hidden  within  a  forest  of 
literary  leaves.  Sometimes  the  more  ignorant,  who  think 
all  foreigners  are  made  of  gold,  imagine  that  Christianity 
and  money  are  inseparably  connected,  and  hence  being 
poor  themselves,  they  can  have  no  relation  with  Chris- 
tianity. A  wide  misunderstanding  which  obtains  even 
among  scholars  and  officials  in  high  circles  is  that  Chris- 

*  Scarcely  had  the  missionaries  gained  a  foothold  in  Japan 
when  translations  of  anti-Christian  literature  appeared,  which  have 
increased  with  the  years.  As  far  back  as  1882,  during  the  visit 
of  Joseph  Cook  to  Japan,  the  following  answer  was  given  to 
his  question  as  to  what  books  opposed  to  Christianity  were  most 
read  by  educated  Japanese :  Buckle's  "  History  of  Civilization  " 
(translated),  John  S.  Mill's  Works,  his  "Essays  on  Religion" 
and  "Utilitarianism"  (translated),  Huxley  on  "Protoplasm" 
(translated),  Draper's  "Conflict  Between  Science  and  Religion" 
and  "  The  Intellectual  Development  of  Europe,"  Thomas  Paine's 
•'Age  of  Reason"  (translated),  Ingersoll's  "Lectures  on  Gods" 
(translated),  Herbert  Spencer's  Works,  Bain's  Works. — Otis 
Carey,  "A  History  of  Christianity  in  Japan,"  Vol.  H,  p.  162. 


PROBLEMS  AND  DIFFICULTIES        307 

tianity  is  simply  a  unique  system  of  ethics  which  sparkles, 
embedded  in  Jewish  superstition.  The  new  life,  the  all- 
supreme  Lord,  the  surrender  to  Him,  they  have  missed, 
and  thousands  miss  them  who  yearly  visit  our  churches 
and  preaching  halls. 

Socially,  Japan  is  organized  on  the  Confucian  model  of 
high  and  low.  There  are  steps  and  grades  which  are 
indicated  in  everyday  speech,  and  the  attitude  which 
those  of  rank  hold  toward  those  below  them.  In  Christ 
we  are  placed  on  the  same  level.  In  the  Kingdom  of 
God  "  one  is  your  Master,  even  Christ,  and  all  ye  are 
brethren."  But  Japanese  custom  that  forbids  the  inter- 
mingling of  high  and  low  is  so  strong  that  the  Church 
has  lost  the  active  participation  of  many  from  higher 
circles,  and  others  who  have  come  to  faith  dread  pub- 
licity and  contact  with  the  crowd,  and  hence  never  enter 
the  church,  nor  obey  its  ordinances. 

The  average  church  audience  in  Japan  is  small.  The 
assembling  for  weekly  or  tri-weekly  worship  is  a  new 
thing  in  Japan.  The  native  religions  were  content  with 
a  few  yearly  or  monthly  festivals,  and  an  occasional 
visit  to  a  temple,  according  to  the  mood  of  the  wor- 
shipper. The  Japanese  mind  is  serious,  and  for  contem- 
plation, instead  of  a  crowd,  they  prefer  isolation  and 
solitude.  Again,  punctuality  is  an  irksome  and  im- 
ported thing  which  a  Japanese  thoroughly  dislikes. 
There  are  few  people  of  leisure  anyhow,  and  their  home 
is  seldom  left  without  some  one  v/ho  remains  as  a  care- 
taker. Farmers  do  not  leave  their  fields  till  the  sun 
sets,  and  merchants  and  artisans,  who  know  no  Sabbath, 
seldom  shut  their  doors  until  ten  or  eleven  at  night.  The 
struggle  for  existence  is  most  intense.  The  glamour 
of  new  riches  and  the  interest  and  the  glory  of  a  wide, 
wide  world,  which  has  just  opened  for  Japan,  has  ob- 
scured the  vision  of  God  and  stilled  the  voice  of  the 
soul. 

Another  difficulty  is  the  pronen^ss  of  a  Japanese  to 


308  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

reason  thus :  Westerners  have  their  faults  and  do  evil. 
Christianity  is  the  rehgion  of  Westerners,  and,  therefore, 
Christianity  is  at  fault.  I  went  into  one  country  district 
where  Christianity  had  a  bad  name  because  it  was  the 
religion  of  Russia,  and  because  of  the  persecution  of 
Japanese  on  our  Pacific  Coast.  Any  indignity  amount- 
ing to  violence  upon  the  person  of  any  Japanese  abroad 
would  do  more  harm  in  the  creation  of  prejudice  than 
many  missionaries  could  undo.  The  fact  would  be 
cabled  or  spread  in  Japanese  papers  by  correspondence 
within  a  month. 

The  lives  of  some  residents  in  port  cities,  of  some  for- 
eign sailors  ashore,  and  of  some  tourists  who  visit  Japan, 
so  far  from  recommending  Christianity,  are  a  disgrace 
to  the  nations  of  their  birth.  In  the  grand  total,  these 
pleasure  lovers  and  social  derelicts  of  the  West  count 
powerfully  toward  pulling  down  the  very  temples  we 
are  striving  to  erect.  Charging  the  sin  of  foreigners 
against  Christianity  seems  an  unwarranted  conclusion. 
Especially  do  the  heavy  armaments  of  Western  nations 
seem  to  the  Oriental  mind  wholly  inconsistent  with  the 
religion  which  is  supposed  to  dominate  Western  coun- 
tries. The  Oriental  does  not  pause  to  consider  that  the 
majority  in  so-called  Christian  lands  never  enter  a 
church  or  cathedral.  Nor  does  he  reason  that  war,  like 
slavery  and  intemperance,  antedated  Christianity  and 
therefore  cannot  be  called  a  fruit  thereof. 

The  ignorance  that  does  not  know  and  the  immorality 
that  prefers  darkness,  must  ever  be  the  two  chief  hin- 
drances to  the  Cross  in  every  land.  There  are  sins  and 
immoralities  in  Japan  which  keep  many  away  from 
Christ  because  of  the  sweeping  surrender  required  of 
every  Cross-bearer.  John  said :  "  And  the  light  shineth 
in  the  darkness;  the  darkness  apprehended  it  not."  If 
missionaries  and  Japanese  evangelists,  tracts  and  Bibles 
were  immediately  furnished  in  such  numbers  that  every 
one  in  the  land  could  have  a  chance  to  know  the  Gospel, 


PROBLEMS  AND  DIFFICULTIES        309 

multitudes  would  surely  reject  it.  They  did  in  Christ's 
day.  John  says  again :  "  Men  love  the  darkness  rather 
than  the  light,  for  their  works  were  evil." 

Count  Okuma  said :  "  The  evil  I  wish  to  speak  of  is 
that  our  people  from  ancient  time  thought  so  much  of 
the  duty  of  obedience  that  they  forgot  to  respect  individ- 
ual rights,  and  this  must  be  classed  among  our  short- 
comings." The  power  of  the  family  over  the  individual 
in  Japan  is  little  understood  in  the  West.  If  there  were 
the  same  liberty  of  action  in  Japan  that  there  is  in  the 
United  States,  it  is  probable  that  our  converts  would 
be  double  or  treble  what  they  are.  Especially  school 
teachers  and  officials  of  all  sorts  have  a  great  influence 
over  all  who  look  up  to  them,  either  for  instruction  or 
orders.  A  wife  rarely  joins  the  church  without  the  con- 
sent of  her  husband.  One  lady  wrote  to  England  and 
obtained  her  husband's  consent  before  she  would  receive 
baptism.  Another  waited  till  she  heard  from  her  husband, 
who  was  abroad,  and  as  his  letter  forbade  her  joining  the 
church,  she  obeyed  him.  Even  a  grown  man  dreads  to 
break  with  the  family  traditions  and  go  against  the  wish 
of  father  or  elder  brother.  A  bright  young  man,  who 
has  a  family,  recently  turned  to  Christ.  His  father's 
family  was  founded  three  hundred  years  ago,  and  in 
all  the  years,  he  was  the  first  to  confess  Christ.  He 
has  held  out  against  considerable  ridicule  and  constant 
opposition. 

"  The  trolley  wire  attached  to  loaded  cars  would  soon 
be  snapped  if  an  attempt  was  made  to  haul  the  cars  by 
direct  traction ;  but  the  same  trolley  wire  can  be  charged 
with  an  invisible  force  that  will  move  all  the  cars  of  a 
great  city,  loaded  to  their  utmost  capacity."  *  And  so 
with  the  conversion  of  Japan,  The  task  is  so  great  and 
the  problems  are  so  numerous,  that  the  work  is  beyond 
our  strength  and  wisdom.  But  God  can  charge  His 
church,  His  Gospel,  and  commission  His  Spirit  with  an 
*  Seth  Low,  Hudson-Fulton  celebration  speech. 


310  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

anthority  and  power  that  will  move  all  Japan  Zionward — ■ 
Heavenward. 

The  traveller  in  Japan  sees  the  exposed  sides  of  many 
precipitous  mountains  worn  by  floods  and  tilted  by  up- 
heavals. These  mountains  have  been  shaken  by  earth- 
quakes until  the  massive  granite  has  been  cut  and  chopped 
like  mincemeat  under  the  butcher's  cleaver.  There  are 
problems  confronting  the  Church  in  Japan  to-day  which 
seemingly  may  block  the  way  of  the  Cross  and  hinder 
multitudes  who  should  travel  in  the  King's  highway. 

But  so  surely  as  God  reigns,  these  bold  and  threatening 
peaks  shall  be  broken.  They  shall  crumble  into  debris. 
"  The  hills  shall  be  levelled.  The  valleys  shall  be  exalted." 
The  King  shall  come  in  His  beauty  and  Japan's  millions 
shall  cry :  "  Hossana,  blessed  be  the  King  of  Israel  who 
Cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord." 


IV 

CLAIMS   FOR   SYMPATHY 


A  poor  man  served  by  thee  shall  make  thee  rich; 
A  sick  man  helped  by  thee  shall  make  thee  strong, 
Thou  shalt  be  served  thyself  by  every  sense  of  service  which 
thou  renderest. 

— E.  B.  Browning. 

The  Father  of  light  takes  no  pleasure  in  the  children  of 
darkness.  He  is  not  accustomed  to  carry  souls  to  Heaven  as 
mariners  do  their  passengers  to  their  port,  who  shut  them  under 
the  hatches,  so  that  they  cannot  see  whither  they  go. — William 
Secker,  "The  Nonsuch  Professor,"  p.  364. 

If  there  were  just  one  last  lost  soul  left  in  the  world,  and 
that  one  were  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  and  the  only  way  it  could 
be  reached  was  for  Trinity  Church  of  Boston  to  move  thither 
bodily,  it  would  pay  for  us  all  to  go. — Phillips  Brooks^  quoted  in 
"  A  Man's  Religion,"  p.  232. 

It  should  be  ours  the  oil  and  wine  to  pour 
Into  the  bleeding  wounds  of  stricken  ones; 

To  take  the  smitten  and  the  sick  and  sore. 
And  bear  them  where  a  stream  of  blessing  runs. 

Instead  we  look  about — the  way  is  wide, 
And  we  pass  by  upon  the  other  side. 

Has  America  no  message  for  the  strong  and  the  masterful 
races  of  the  non-Christian  world?  I  like  the  Japanese  the  more 
because  they  are  united,  ambitious,  and  aggressive.  I  do  not 
defend  their  vices  any  more  than  I  defend  the  vices  of  my 
countrymen ;  but  I  want  to  see  the  Japanese  united  with  the 
best  people  of  Europe  and  America  in  the  service  of  Christ. — 
Arthur  Judson  Brown,  The  Journal  of  Race  Development, 
July,  1912,  p.  91. 

The  greatest  evils  of  the  world  are  impurity  and  inequality 
and  hopelessness.  Men  do  not  know  the  character  of  God,  and 
therefore  they  are  unclean.  Men  do  not  know  the  love  of  God, 
and  therefore  they  are  not  brothers.  Men  have  never  felt  the 
thrill  of  the  life  of  God,  and  therefore  they  are  without  hope, 
and  despair  alike  of  the  days  that  are  and  the  days  that  are 
to  be. — Robert  E.  Speer,  Men's  National  Mission  Congress,  1910, 
p.  238. 


IV 
CLAIMS  FOR  SYMPATHY 

THE  impression  has  been  widely  spread  in  Chris- 
tian lands  that  mission  work  in  Japan  has  about 
reached  its  end,  and  many  a  saint  has  checked 
Japan  off  the  prayer  list.  The  material  success  of  Japan 
has  contributed  to  the  misconception  of  the  real  needs 
of  Japan.  The  country's  schools,  the  civil  order,  the 
merchant  marine,  the  standing  army,  and  powerful 
dreadnaughts  have  caused  many  to  reason  that  such  a 
nation  is  well  able  to  look  after  its  own  spiritual  destinies. 

Ten  years  ago  a  missionary  of  reputation  said  that  by 
191 2  the  missionaries  could  each  return  to  his  own  coun- 
try, but  the  optimist's  vision  overreached  by  a  number 
of  decades.  Previous  to  the  reaction  of  1888,  mission- 
aries of  the  early  eighties  talked  in  the  same  strain,  that 
their  work  would  soon  be  finished.  A  few  years  ago, 
many  leaders  among  the  Japanese,  in  no  uncertain  terms, 
made  it  plain  that  they  could  do  the  work  and  that  no 
more  missionaries  would  be  needed.  Many  missionaries 
half-believed  that  the  Japanese  workers,  few  as  they 
were,  could  man  the  field  and  extend  the  borders  of  the 
Kingdom.  But  a  change  has  come  in  the  opinion  of 
Japanese  and  the  missionaries,  for  the  vastness  of  the 
work  undone  and  the  scarcity  of  workers,  both  Japanese 
and  foreign,  make  it  imperative  that  an  urgent  call  be 
made  for  more  missionaries.  And  a  worthy  equipment 
must  be  furnished,  because  with  the  advance  of  the 
nation  the  present  equipment  grows  yearly  more  insig^ 
nificant. 

Supposing  that  the  missionary  force  be  held  for  soma 
years  without  an  increase.    Such  a  policy  would  in  reality 

313 


314  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

be  a  decrease  because  of  the  rapid  increase  in  population 
and  because  of  the  increase  both  in  numbers  and  the 
efficiency  of  believers  in  the  idolatrous  faiths  which  grow 
in  power  because  of  better  organization  and  modern  ways 
of  propagation,  such  as  schools,  literature,  public  speak- 
ing, and  house-to-house  visitation. 

Though  it  is  a  marvel  that  the  Christian  forces  in 
Japan  have  accomplished  as  much  as  they  have,  yet  the 
work  has  scarcely  begun.  To  advocate  a  halt  in  mission 
work  would  be  a  grave  mistake,  based  either  on  misin- 
formation or  indifference  to  Japan's  needs.  Laying  aside 
sentiment,  let  us  consider  some  hard  facts  relative  to 
Protestant  missions  in  Japan  proper.  Every  Protestant 
Christian  in  the  land  could  be  crowded  into  the  Colosseum 
as  it  stood  in  the  First  Century.  More  than  one-third  of 
the  church  members  are  non-resident,  leaving  52,972  resi- 
dent Christians  in  all  the  Empire.*  These  could  easily 
be  given  seats  or  standing  room  in  a  modern  American 
baseball  pavilion. 

If  we  allow,  on  the  average,  that  125  persons  can  be 
seated  in  the  preaching  places  in  Japan,  where  preaching 
is  carried  on  at  least  six  times  a  year,  and  include  the 
churches  partly  and  wholly  self-supporting,  we  have 
2,025  such  churches  and  preaching  places  which  would 
accommodate  253,125  souls  at  one  sitting,  or  less  than 
the  population  of  Minneapolis. 

There  is  a  force  of  1,785  Japanese  workers,  including 
Bible  women,  ordained  and  unordained  ministers  in 
Japan.  Each  would  thus  have  a  parish  of  29,692  souls, 
were  they  distributed  according  to  the  population.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  many  of  these  workers  are 
young  and  inexperienced.  It  is  a  logical  and  unanswera- 
ble statement  that  the  evangelization  of  any  land  must 
be  completed  by  the  native  force.  But  where  is  the 
native  force  ?     But  where  is  the  native  force  in  sufficient 

*  Reported  by  G.  W.  Fulton  at  the  Federated  Missions  Con- 
ference, 1913. 


CLAIMS  FOR  SYMPATHY  315 

numbers  to  be  found  in  Japan?  Since  the  beginning, 
several  decades  ago,  there  have  been,  all  told,  but  924 
graduates  from  all  the  seminaries^  and  not  all  of  these 
are  in  the  service  now,  because  of  death  or  retirement. 
A  young  man  of  marked  talent  can  usually  draw  double 
or  treble  the  salary  in  the  world  that  the  Church  could 
pay  him  as  a  minister. 

The  last  account  showed  that  there  were  406  mis- 
sionaries, including  women  as  well  as  men,  in  the  evan- 
gelistic service  in  Japan.  This  gives  but  one  evangelistic 
missionary  for  130,541  of  the  population.  In  several  of 
the  more  unevangelized  provinces,  as  Nagano,  Niigata, 
and  Yamanashi,  there  are  193,096  people  for  one  evan- 
gelistic missionary.  In  the  United  States,  there  is  one 
minister  or  priest  for  every  531  of  the  population.* 

In  the  United  States  there  are  150,455  Sunday  Schools, 
or  one  for  599  of  the  population.  In  Japan  there  are 
106,500  Sunday  School  teachers  and  scholars — 1,588 
schools,  or  one  Sunday  School  for  39,659  of  the  popula- 
tion. The  yearly  increase  of  the  population  through 
newly  born  babes  is  six  times  the  children  enrolled  in 
our  Sunday  Schools. f  There  are  two  Protestant  Chris- 
tians in  the  United  States  for  every  nine  of  the  popula- 
tion; in  Japan  there  is  but  one  full  church  member  for 
every  723  of  the  population.  However,  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  there  are  towns  and  country  districts  of 
ten  thousand  and  upwards  where  no  one  can  be  found 

*  The  Christian  Herald  almanac  for  1913  estimates  that  there 
are  about  173,000  ministers,  222,000  churches  or  societies,  and 
36,303,592  believers  for  all  faiths  in  the  United  States  in  1910. 
This  would  give  one  minister  or  priest  to  an  average  of  210 
members  per  church,  or  one  minister  for  531  of  the  population 
of  91,972,226  souls. 

t  In  1909,  the  population  increased  665,667.  In  1908,  the 
increase  was  769,174.  The  official  statistics  for  population  from 
1900  to  1909,  respectively,  are  44,825,597,  45,446,369,  46,041.768, 
46,732,876,  47,219,566,  47,678,396,  48,164,761,  48,819,630,  49,588,804, 
50,254,471. 


316  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

who  ever  had  faith  in  Christ  or  ever  bowed  the  knee 
to  Him. 

In  view  of  the  above  facts  and  similar  ones  that  could 
be  stated,  it  is  little  wonder  that  the  leaders  of  the 
Canadian  Methodist  Church  had  decided  to  double  their 
missionary  force  within  five  years.*  For  years  and  years 
to  come  there  will  be  work  in  Japan  for  missionaries 
who  are  sympathetic,  patient,  humble,  unselfish,  whose 
one  passion  is  love  for  the  people,  whose  one  purpose 
is  to  exalt  Christ  before  them.  And  what  a  wonderful 
people  the  Japanese  are!  They  have  their  faults,  but 
the  bulk,  the  overwhelming  majority,  are  loving,  honest, 
brave,  sympathetic,  religiously  inclined,  and  bear  up  under 
life's  burdens  with  a  cheer  and  face  life's  mysteries  with 
a  trust  that  deserves  a  better  hope  than  their  priests  and 
fortune-tellers  can  invent. 

Besides  erroneous  ideas  about  mission  progress  in 
Japan,  there  is  another  thing  which  may  have  diverted 
the  interest  of  some  Americans  from  the  Christianization 
of  Japan,  and  that  is  the  wild  rumours  of  war — a  war 
for  which  there  is  no  cause.  Let  all  who  may  have  been 
aflPected  by  these  newspaper  sensations  remember  that 
Japan's  interests  lie  to  the  westward.  Westward  are 
the  immense  territories  and  populations  of  the  Dragon 
and  the  Bear.  In  1923,  the  leases  in  Manchuria  expire. 
The  Siberian  Railway  has  been  about  doubled,  and  the 
Orient  is  in  a  very  chaotic  condition.  With  whomsoever 
Japan  may  disagree  in  the  future,  everything  indicates 
that  she  can  in  no  way  afford  to  alienate  or  be  alienated 
from  the  United  States.     One-third  of  Japan's  exports 

*The  missionaries  of  the  Canadian  Methodist  Church,  in  a 
special  convention  at  Karuizawa  in  1909,  drew  up  a  plan  to 
double  their  force  of  missionaries  and  to  quadruple  the  number 
of  Japanese  pastors  in  the  next  five  years.  They  had  at  that 
time,  counting  missionaries  on  furlough,  a  missionary  force  of 
thirty-nine.  This  they  determined  to  increase  by  forty.  The 
native  ministry,  counting  probationers,  was  forty-two,  and  this 
they  proposed  to  augment  by  160  additional  workers. 


CLAIMS  FOR  SYMPATHY  317 

go  to  the  United  States,  and,  like  England,  more  and 
more  will  Japan  need  a  sure  American  base  for  food- 
stuffs and  raw  material. 

Let  it  be  noted  that  these  war  rumours  often  orig- 
inate on  the  continent  of  Europe  which  would  profit 
most  from  the  estrangement  of  the  United  States  and 
Japan.  A  war  rumour  may  sometimes  serve  diplomacy 
by  diverting  attention  from  an  important  corner  of  the 
international  checkerboard  to  one  less  important,  or  it 
may  be  but  a  conscienceless  banging  on  the  linotype  to 
increase  the  sales  of  a  daily  newspaper.  Every  time  that 
Arizona,  Colorado,  or  Idaho  digs  an  irrigating  ditch, 
Japan  lays  down  new  keels  to  import  more  of  American 
wheat  and  cotton.  And  every  time  that  Seattle,  San 
Francisco,  or  Los  Angeles  adds  a  hundred  thousand  to 
their  population,  Japan  increases  tenfold  more  and 
covers  more  hills  with  tea  and  mulberry  bushes  that  her 
own  children  may  be  fed  from  the  sales  of  tea,  silk, 
cloisenne,  and  other  art  products  to  the  United  States. 

Japan  needs  our  sympathy  because  upon  her  rests 
painfully  heavy  the  burden  of  armaments  and  because 
Western  powers  in  the  economic  or  martial  subjugation  of 
all  of  Asia  have  taught  Japan  the  power  of  gold  and  the 
sword.  Japan's  much  desired  treaties  on  an  equality 
were  not  granted  till  after  the  war  with  China,  and  resi- 
dent ministers  were  not  raised  to  the  rank  of  ambassadors 
till  after  her  war  with  Russia.  A  Japanese  of  note  said : 
"  A  nation,  in  order  to  maintain  her  independent  position 
in  the  midst  of  international  rivalries,  must  command 
sources  of  power  which  will  inspire  other  nations  not 
simply  with  respect,  but  fear."  *  A  young  Japanese  ac- 
quaintance of  mine  said  that  when  a  small  boy  in  school, 
his  teacher  told  the  class  that  China  was  in  the  right 
in  the  Opium  War,  but  that  England  conquered  by 
weight  of  force.    He  then  decided  that  he  would  become 

*  Baron  Kaneko,  in  the  North  American  Review,  November, 
1904. 


318  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

a  statesman  if  he  could  and  thereby  help  to  establish 
the  power  of  Japan,  for  it  seemed  to  him  that  might 
and  not  right  was  the  final  appeal  among  the  great 
world  powers. 

Japan  needs  our  sympathy  because  her  large  popula- 
tion, crowded  upon  a  small  area,  is  being  impoverished 
to  support  her  large  army  and  navy.  Why  does  not 
Japan  segregate  all  her  lepers,  house  all  her  insane, 
furnish  telephones  to  all  applicants,  and  give  every  aspir- 
ing youth  a  chance  for  an  advanced  education  that  will 
fit  him  industrially  or  mentally  to  earn  his  way?  The 
answer  is,  because  of  the  burden  of  armaments  and  the 
interest  on  war  loans.  Yesterday  Tokyo  had  a  heavy 
snow,  and  in  the  slush  and  ice,  I  saw  many  a  footprint 
where,  protruding  beyond  the  cloth  or  straw  sandal,  the 
bare  toes  had  left  their  impress.  One  mother  who 
walked  in  front  of  me  was  bare-legged  to  the  knees 
and  bore  a  wee  babe  on  her  back.  She  belonged  to  the 
class  who,  of  late,  in  large  numbers,  have  committed 
suicide  rather  than  face  cold  or  starvation. 

Japan  has  tried  hard  to  get  ahead  in  the  world  and 
deserves  the  praise  she  has  received  in  wholesale  fashion, 
but  mission  leaders  must  not  place  her  beyond  sympa- 
thetic consideration.  The  rising  tide  of  unbelief  and  the 
shaking  of  moral  foundations  has  resulted  in  a  turn  to 
conservatism  and  the  past.  As  an  example,  the  suicide 
of  General  Nogi,  the  night  of  the  Emperor's  funeral, 
became  a  national  event  which  called  forth  praise  that 
was  practically  universal.  His  funeral  was  attended  by 
thousands.  A  popular  ceremony  was  given  in  his  honour, 
culminating  in  Shiba  Park,  Tokyo,  in  which  more  than 
a  thousand  Buddhist  and  Shinto  priests  took  the  lead, 
dressed  in  their  official  robes. 

There  have  been  great  religious  gatherings  in  Europe 
and  America,  but  where  can  be  found  the  equal  of  the 
enthusiasm  displayed  when  a  million  pilgrims  attended 
the  ten  days'  celebration  at  Kyoto,  in  191 1.     It  was  the 


CLAIMS  FOR  SYMPATHY  319 

650th  anniversary  of  Shinran,  a  founder  of  a  sect  of 
Buddhism.  He  had  received  posthumous  honours  during 
the  reign  of  the  late  Emperor.  A  special  station  had  to 
be  built  to  accommodate  the  visitors.  Money  was  squan- 
dered lavishly  on  the  special  robes  worn  by  the  zealots 
who  could  afford  them.  One  thousand  persons  paid 
over  $100  per  robe,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  gave 
$5,000  per  robe.*  Many  were  crushed  to  death  in  the 
crowds.  An  eyewitness  said,  "  The  devotion  of  the  people 
to  Buddhism  and  its  leaders  is  nothing  less  than  mar- 
vellous." 

And  yet  with  all  the  pomp  of  idolatry,  the  burning 
of  prayers,  the  chanting  of  priests,  the  elaborate  services 
for  the  dead, — the  vital  question  is.  What  does  it  really 
do  for  the  living?  A  member  of  the  Japanese  Parlia- 
ment said :  "  Since  the  war  with  Russia,  the  public  senti- 
ment has  inclined  to  profligacy,  levity,  and  vanity,  while 
social  manners  and  morals  have  become  debased."  f  A 
friend  of  the  Japanese  says :  "  Religion  is  excluded  from 
the  schools.  There  is  practically  no  religious  instruction 
in  the  homes.  The  educated  portion  of  the  population  is 
already  largely  naturalistic  and  agnostic.  Few  educators 
have  any  use  for  religion  at  all."  % 

Japan  claims  our  sympathy  because  of  her  dire  need 
of  Christ  and  utter  helplessness  without  Him  as  the 
future  will  show,  unless  there  is  a  speedy  spread  and 
acceptance  of  the  Gospel.  Now  is  the  time  to  pray  for 
Japan.  "  We  are  as  much  bound  to  pray  while  on  earth 
as  angels  are  to  praise  while  in  heaven."  Astronomers 
tell  us  that  but  one  part  in  2,735,000,000  of  the  sun's 
fiery  energy  reaches  the  earth,  the  balance  wandering 
into  space.  But  what  would  our  earth  be  without  this 
incomprehensible  fraction  of  the  sun's  light  and  heat? 

*  Missionary  Review  of  the  World,  September,  1912,  p.  701. 
f  Japan  Chronicle's  translation,  January  27,  1909. 
t  D.  B.  Schneder,  quoted  from  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Con- 
ference, Vol.  I,  p.  67. 


320  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

Despise  not  thy  prayer  and  its  power  to  bless  when 
energized  by  the  way  of  the  Heavenly  throne. 

Japan  needs  large  sums  of  money  for  the  erection  of 
Christian  schools,  especially  a  great  central  Christian 
University.  "  Government  and  public  schools  have  ad- 
vanced a  hundred  paces,  while  Christian  education  has 
taken  but  a  few  faltering  steps."  *  Recently,  I  read  in 
an  American  paper,  of  our  harvest  of  three  billion 
bushels  of  corn  and  one  and  a  half  billion  of  oats  and 
wheat,  enough  to  fill  a  river  bed  from  Chicago  to  New 
York.f  Christians  may  share  God's  harvest,  but  not 
His  rewards  and  favour,  except  "  the  poor  have  the 
Gospel  preached  unto  them."  Before  the  world  gets  in 
motion,  a  big  motion  toward  the  millennium,  larger  sums 
of  money  must  be  consecrated  to  God.  The  Kingdom  of 
God  is  not  of  this  world,  and  yet  money  is  needed  to 
propagate,  to  educate,  to  print  and  distribute  the  truths 
which  are  the  essence  of  Christianity. 

The  whole  Orient  to-day  is  shifting  and  changing. 
Destructive  and  constructive  forces  are  at  work.  Crises, 
great  moral  crises,  are  in  the  process  of  shaping,  or  just 
at  hand.  Society  is  like  the  waters  of  a  bay  in  the  dark, 
whose  waters  rush  this  way  and  that,  churned  by  two 
opposite  currents — the  old  and  the  new.  Into  this 
vortex,  into  this  centre  of  world  interest,  God  has  thrown 
some  thousands  of  His  missionaries.  Each  one  is  a  light- 
bearer,  each  one  is  a  distributor  of  life-belts.  There  are 
plenty  of  ways  to  lend  a  hand.  The  brave  and  resource- 
ful soul  will  find  ten  times  more  than  his  hand  can  do. 

*  President  Tasuku  Harada,  quoted,  Japan  Evangelist,  Novem- 
ber, 1912,  p.  532. 
t  Christian  Herald,  November  27,  1912. 


V 
JAPAN'S   NEED   OF   CHRIST 


Man's  willingness  is  God  channel  to  the  earth. — S.  D.  Gordon, 
"  Quiet  Talks  on  Prayer." 

Until  we  make  some  real  impression  on  the  agricultural  and 
trading  classes,  the  backbone  of  the  nation  has  not  been  reached, 
so  far  as  the  evangelistic  work  is  concerned. — Bishop  Evington, 
Edinburgh  Conference,   1910,  Vol.  I,  p.  57. 

Link  yourselves  as  early  as  possible  with  some  great  cause 
that  has  conflict  before  it.  If  you  do  not  help  that  cause,  that 
cause  will  help  you  to  your  manhood. — John  Bright. 

Since  the  revolution,  Western  politics  and  legal  codes  have 
been  utilized,  but  to  religion  no  attention  has  been  paid.  This 
is  like  making  an  image  and  leaving  out  the  soul,  or  painting 
a  dragon  and  forgetting  to  put  in  the  eyes.  Such  a  deformed 
civilization  cannot  long  continue :  therefore  it  is  of  the  greatest 
importance  to  supply  the  lack. — KoDO  Kozaki,  The  Christian 
Movement. 

The  Japanese  are  intellectually  in  the  foremost  files  of  time, 
but  morally  and  spiritually  groping  and  distressed.  A  few  years 
ago  Japan  was  like  a  buoyant,  ingenious  boy,  sure  that  Western 
science  and  philosophy  would  solve  all  problems.  To-day  Japan 
stands  disillusioned  and  on  the  verge  of  cynicism,  a  mature  man, 
solemnized  by  failures,  perplexed  and  seeking  some  sure  word 
of  life.  What  but  full-orbed  Christianity,  represented  by  manly 
men,  proclaiming  a  life-giving  Gospel,  can  hope  to  cope  with 
this  need? — Selected  from  "Japan  To-day  and  To-morrow," 
Japan  Evangelist,  September,  1912. 

God  give  us  men !    A  time  like  this  demands 

Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith,  and  ready  hands; 

Men  whom  the  lust  of  oflRce  does  not  kill ; 

Men  whom  the  spoils  of  life  cannot  buy; 

Men  who  possess  opinions  and  will, 

Men  who  have  honour,  men  who  will  not  lie; 

Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagogue 

And  damn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without  winking! 

Tall  men,  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog 

In  public  duty  and  in  private  thinking. 

— J.  G.  Holland. 


V 

JAPAN'S  NEED  OF  CHRIST 

THERE  is  something  unspeakably  sad  about  Japan. 
She  was  the  first  Oriental  nation  to  shake  off  the 
isolation  and  lethargy  of  the  past.  Her  keen  in- 
tellect scented  within  one  decade  great  tendencies  and 
fundamental  truths  which  other  nations  have  failed  to 
grasp  after  centuries  of  contact  with  the  West.  She  has 
openly  and  by  the  wholesale  accepted  the  material  and 
scientific  results  of  Christian  nations.*  They,  by  natural 
processes  of  toil  and  growth,  developed  their  tools,  inven- 
tions, systems  of  education,  researches,  and  mastery  of 
nature.  These  have  been  freely  passed  to  the  Orient, 
and  Japan  was  the  first  to  accept  and  use  them.  Fur- 
thermore, she  is  given  an  honoured  place  at  the  table  of 
international  council,  and  renewed  treaties  assure  to  her 
opportunities  world-wide.  But  over  against  this  acute- 
ness  of  discernment,  valour  in  war,  and  adaptation  of 
the  new,  is  the  failure  to  recognize  the  fact  that  it  was 
Christ  who  lifted  the  West  from  barbarism;  that  what 
is  best  in  our  civilization,  most  worthy  and  potent  in  our 
psychic  life,  is  due  to  the  Nazarene.  Can  new  wine  be 
put  into  old  bottles?  The  heart  of  Japan,  her  spirit  and 
her  ethics,  are  in  her  own  past.  If  she  preserves  what 
is  best  of  the  new  and  the  old,  she  must  have  Christ. 

*  The  Perry  Expedition  brought  a  present  to  Japan  of  "  rifles 
and  gunpowder,  the  electric  telegraph,  the  steam  locomotive  and 
train,  the  telescope,  life-boats,  stoves,  clocks,  sewing  machines, 
agricultural  implements  and  machinery,  standard  scales,  weights, 
measures,  maps,  charts,  the  works  of  Audubon  and  other  Amer- 
ican authors."— From  Griffis'  "Life  of  Matthew  Calbraith 
Perry." 


SU  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

She  could  not  equip  her  army  with  the  bows  and  arrows 
of  feudal  times,  and  much  less  can  she  equip  her  rising 
generations  to  weather  the  storms  of  atheism,  agnosti- 
cism, nihilism,  and  epicurianism,  with  the  mythology  of 
the  days  when  her  own  small  horizon  set  the  boundaries 
for  the  ends  of  the  world. 

A  Japanese  writer  said :  "  Japan  is  beginning  to  ques- 
tion the  source  of  moral  authority,  and  wonder  where 
she  will  go  for  certainty."  The  people  are  breaking  from 
their  old  faiths.  An  agnosticism  is  spreading,  which 
neither  furnishes  peace  for  the  soul  nor  security  for  so- 
ciety. Buddhism  and  Confucianism  furnish  Japan  with 
many  ethical  rules,  as  well  as  spiritual  impulses  which 
did  service  in  mediaeval  days,  in  the  time  of  twilight, 
but  with  the  passing  of  the  night,  a  purer  light  is  needed 
to  illumine  and  guide  the  nation.  The  factories  of 
Japan,  her  ships  on  the  high  seas,  the  rapid  growth  of 
the  larger  cities,  the  ease  of  travel  with  which  many 
move  about  for  education,  labour,  and  pleasure,  have  all 
combined  to  weaken  the  influence  of  the  home  and  under- 
mine the  family  and  social  structure  of  Japan.  The  rich 
and  those  who  have  moderate  means  have  developed  a 
taste  for  luxuries  which  has  grown  in  a  marked  degree 
within  the  last  few  years.  Eiderdown  quilts,  costly  jew- 
elry and  furs,  automobiles  and  pianos,  mahogany  furni- 
ture and  delicacies  for  the  table  are  imported  from  all 
parts  of  the  world.  With  the  spread  of  luxuries  has 
come  graft  and  corruption,  both  in  politics  and  business, 
which  is  effecting  many  in  higher  circles.  With  the 
change  in  the  family,  the  growth  of  individual  knowl- 
edge, the  ease  of  travel,  and  the  love  of  pleasure,  has 
come  an  assertion  of  rights  which  is  manifest  in  the 
strikes  of  students  against  their  teachers  and  of  work- 
men against  their  employers. 

While  Japan  scored  tremendous  victories  against 
Russia,  the  bill  for  powder,  shot,  and  shells  stands  at 
about  a  billion  dollars.     With  advancing  prices,  and  a 


JAPAN'S  NEED  OF  CHRIST  325 

balance  of  foreign  trade  against  Japan,  her  annual  inter- 
est is  a  tremendous  strain  upon  the  people.  But  Japan's 
greater  loss  is  the  moral  loss  which  followed  in  the  wake 
of  the  war.  Since  the  war,  there  have  been  instances  of 
violence  and  crime  unchronicled  since  the  beginning  of 
the  Meiji  Era.*  And  since  the  war,  socialism  has  as- 
sumed a  rampant  and  destructive  attitude,  which,  while 
checked  by  the  police,  is  as  dangerous  and  nihilistic  as 
Russia's  worst. 

Patriotism  in  Japan  is  the  passion  which  acts  as  the 
unifier  and  preserver  of  the  nation.  But  Japan's  patri- 
otism, ethics,  and  religion  will  undergo  a  severe  strain 
by  contact  with  the  more  destructive  elements  of  western 
thought.  This  strain  may  pass  to  the  danger  point  if 
their  people  cry  for  bread  or  if  a  serious  reverse  in  the 
future  should  be  the  outcome  of  the  late  territorial  ex- 
pansion. The  frequence  of  divorce,  the  toleration  of  con- 
cubinage, and  the  yearly  tribute  of  innocent  girls  sold  by 
parents  and  guardians,  under  a  fictitious  wage  advance, 
to  the  shame  and  slavery  of  brothels,  are  incontrovertible 
truths  of  Japan's  need  of  moral  regeneration.  A  farmer 
is  fined  five  dollars  if  he  touch  a  leaf  of  his  own  tobacco 
grown  for  a  government  monopoly,  but  an  ancient  cus- 
tom allows  a  greater  liberty  in  the  sale  of  his  own  flesh. 
The  profits  from  the  tobacco  monopoly  and  the  Govern- 
ment's fees  from  the  Yoshiwara  system  (as  commonly 
reported)  are  about  equal,  viz.:  $25,000  yearly.f 

*  "  That  post-bellum  Japan  is  witnessing  a  serious  increase  in 
crime,  the  prison  statistics  go  to  prove,  and  the  fact  is  generally 
admitted  and  adversely  commented  on  by  specialists.  Such  an 
increment  is  part  of  the  price  that  nations  have  to  pay  for  the 
martial  glories  of  Imperialism,  but,  unhappily,  poetic  justice  is 
at  fault,  inasmuch  as  the  burden  invariably  falls  most  heavily 
upon  the  shoulders  of  those  who  are  least  able  to  bear  it,  and 
who  are  least  responsible  for  its  creation." — See  Japan  Adver- 
tiser editorial  for  June  26,  1912, 

t  The  better  and  more  progressive  Japanese  are  as  ashamed 
of  the  entire  system  as  we  as  a  nation  are  ashamed  of  dynamiters 


S26  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

Country  districts  are  tranquil  and  law-abiding,  but  a 
new  moral  force  is  needed  to  quicken  and  save.  The 
corruption  and  inadequacy  of  old  conceptions  is  illus- 
trated by  the  following:  In  a  certain  town,  a  boy  and 
girl  were  left  destitute.  There  were  relatives  who  were 
comfortably  situated,  and  though  urged  to  support  the 
homeless  children,  they  refused  to  do  so.  Hence,  a  vil- 
lage council  was  called,  and  after  some  consideration,  it 
was  decided  to  send  the  boy  as  a  beggar  among  the 
eighty-eight  Buddhist  shrines  in  Shikoku,  and  the  girl 
was  to  be  placed  in  a  house  of  prostitution.  Among 
others  who  attended  the  council  were  a  Buddhist  priest, 
a  Shinto  priest,  a  doctor,  a  schoolmaster,  and  the  post- 
master. They  all  approved  the  plan,  save  the  post-master, 
who  was  a  Christian.  Through  the  timely  intervention 
of  his  telegram  to  Christian  friends,  the  boy  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  printer  and  the  girl  sent  to  a  well-known  Chris- 
tian orphanage. 

Japan's  spiritual  needs  are  seen  in  the  frequency  with 
which  young  men  have  committed  suicide  from  the  pes- 
simism which  comes  from  doubt  and  the  futility  of  super- 
stitions. Kegon  Falls,  near  Nikko,  where  the  water 
plunges  into  a  rock  chasm  two  hundred  and  fifty  feet 

and  negro  burnings.  There  is  this  difference,  however — the 
Yoshiwara  system  is  Hcensed  under  governmental  supervision, 
as  obtained  in  England  down  to  1886,  in  eighteen  of  the  largest 
naval  and  military  centres  and  the  territory  within  a  radius  of 
fifteen  miles  of  each.  By  Japanese  law,  a  girl  is  free  below 
eighteen,  and  she  can  become  free  if  enslaved,  by  reporting  her 
desire  at  a  police  station,  but  the  debt  remains  as  an  obligation. 
Even  if  she  knows  the  law,  her  egress  is  difficult,  and  her  sense 
of  parental  loyalty  is  fully  as  enslaving.  By  law,  the  written 
consent  of  the  nearest  relative  must  be  obtained  before  entering 
upon  her  miserable  life.  There  is  an  awakening  conscience 
against  the  evil,  led  by  Christian  forces.  Here  and  there  a 
brave  Japanese  official  has  taken  a  heroic  stand.  The  Governor 
of  Osaka,  after  a  fire  which  destroyed  some  of  the  licensed 
houses  within  the  city,  decreed  that  no  more  brothels  should  be 
erected  within  the  burned  area. 


SELECTIONS   FROM   BUDDHIST  SCRIPTURES 


A   BUDDHIST  PREACHING   HALL 


JAPAN'S  NEED  OF  CHRIST  327 

below,  has  been  a  favourite  place.  The  police  have 
guarded  the  spot  to  stay  the  suicide  mania.  A  transla- 
tion of  Misao  Fujimura's  last  words,  who  was  the  first 
student  to  cast  himself  over  Kegon  Falls,  are  found 
below.*  A  number  of  students  have  thrown  themselves 
into  the  crater  of  Asama  volcano.  I  was  walking  near 
its  base  one  day  when  I  noticed  the  farewell  words  of 
a  student,  written  with  a  lead  pencil  on  a  thin  board 
which  had  been  nailed  to  a  tree.  A  number  of  us  read 
it  and  we  concluded  that  it  was  a  joke,  but  later  on  the 
suicide  was  confirmed.  Another  student,  who  had  grad- 
uated with  high  honours,  threw  himself  into  Asama's 
sulphurous  crater.  A  few  words  from  his  last  letter  will 
exhibit  the  frank  despair  of  a  soul  without  God :  "  How 
miserable  is  this  world  of  human  beings !  Where  is  hope 
to  be  found?  Where  may  peace  be  sought?  What  is 
glory?  What  is  rank?  All  around  is  emptiness  and 
solitude !  "  f 

*'  Student  depravity  "  is  a  topic  frequently  discussed 
in  magazines  and  editorials.  Public  writers  do  not  at- 
tempt to  conceal  their  concern,  and  there  is  no  denying 
the  fact  that  so  far  a  remedy  has  not  been  found.  These 
students  are  to  become  Japan's  leaders,  and  in  less  than 
a  generation  they  will  fill  every  important  place  in  the 
complex  and  expanding  life  of  the  nation.     "  Where  is 

*  "  How  slowly  earth's  life  lapses !  How  vast  the  distance  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth !  With  a  five-foot  body  man  wishes  to 
measure  immensity.  What  authority  in  the  least  has  Horatio's 
philosophy?  The  true  meaning  of  everything  in  the  universe 
can  be  spoken  in  one  word — incomprehensibility.  I  bear  this 
grief  in  my  bosom,  and  its  agony  leads  me  to  death.  Standing 
on  the  point  of  a  rock,  there  is  no  sorrow  in  my  heart,  for  at 
last  I  see  that  the  greatest  pessimism  and  the  greatest  optimism 
agree." 

t  "  The  pessimistic  tinge  of  Oriental  thought  is  due  to  the 
feeling  of  helplessness  which  causes  the  world  and  experiences 
to  appear  as  a  great  procession  of  shadows  full  of  suffering 
and  evil." — Paul  S.  Reinsch,  North  American  Review,  January, 
1905. 


328  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

hope  to  be  found  ? "  This  is  not  only  the  dying  lament 
of  a  student,  but  it  is  the  verdict  of  millions  in  Japan, 
who  have  searched  in  vain  among  all  the  gilded  temples 
and  the  mute  images  of  idolatry.* 

The  smoke  of  Japan's  factories  should  not  dim  the 
perspective  of  her  shrines  and  idols.  The  shriek  of  her 
locomotives  and  the  clang  of  her  electric  cars  should  not 
drown  the  mournful  chant  of  her  priests,  who,  as  blind 
guides,  offer  neither  hope  nor  salvation.  This  year,  sev- 
eral hundred  thousand  little  babes  were  born  in  Japan. 
Next  year,  more  will  be  born,  and  the  next.  And 
whither  will  these  tender  lives  be  led?  Will  they  hear 
the  voice  of  the  Good  Shepherd?  With  our  present 
force  of  workers,  few  of  them  will  ever  hear  his  loving 
invitation.  The  combined  Protestant  church  member- 
ship is  less  than  a  fifth  of  the  yearly  increase  in  popu- 
lation. 

In  Japan  the  situation  is  unique  in  that  the  converts 
have  been  mostly  from  the  educated  classes  and  the  de- 
scendants of  the  old  warriors.  In  the  early  days,  they 
were  mostly  won  from  the  soldier  class.  In  recent  years, 
many  of  the  student  class  and  a  class  that  may  be  called 
transient,  who  are  little  burdened  by  the  obligation  or 
opposition  of  family  ties,  have  come  into  the  Church.  A 
most  pressing  need  is  a  big  advance  to  reach  entire  homes 
among  the  farming  and  industrial  classes.  Christianity 
needs  to  lay  its  foundations  broadly  and  deeply  in  the 
hearts  of  the  common  people.  Victory  for  the  Cross 
will  not  be  assured  until  Jesus  has  won  his  way  into  the 
hearts  and  thoughts  of  the  masses  of  Japan. 

When  our  Lord  said  that  repentance  and  remission  of 

*  "  The  large  number  of  beliefs  founded  on  mythical  zoology — 
the  delirium  tremens  of  paganism — which  daily  sway  the 
thought  and  actions  of  millions  of  the  Japanese,  seems  to  be 
unknown,  not  only  to  the  average  tourist  in  their  country,  but 
also  to  most  public  speakers  addressing  audiences  of  Japanese." 
—William  E.  Griffis,  "Dux  Christus,"  p.  103. 


JAPAN'S  NEED  OF  CHRIST  329 

sins  be  preached  in  His  Name  among  all  nations,  be- 
ginning at  Jerusalem,  His  command  and  His  prophecy- 
implied  the  use  of  speech  which  could  be  understood  in 
common  both  by  the  speaker  and  the  hearer.  When 
Paul  went  from  city  to  city  he  found  not  only  synagogues 
but  Jewish  communities  wherein  were  proselytes  who 
understood  the  vocabulary  of  the  Old  Testament.  A  dif- 
ferent situation  confronts  us  in  Japan  to-day.  There 
would  be  more  converts  if  the  message  were  intelligible. 
We  are  still  in  the  process  of  creating  a  Christian  vocab- 
ulary and  literature. 

This  work  is  especially  the  task  of  the  Christian  press 
and  our  Christian  schools.  Because  of  the  lack  of  equip- 
ment and  enlargement,  our  Christian  schools  do  not 
stand  where  they  did  some  years  ago.  The  Government 
schools  have  advanced  all  along  the  line.  Because  of  this, 
and  the  lack  of  a  corresponding  advance  in  Christian 
schools,  they  are  actually  limping  behind  in  the  important 
work  which  they,  and  they  alone,  can  do.  A  committee 
of  twenty,  appointed  by  the  Japan  Christian  Educational 
Association,  said  in  a  report  to  Dr.  Goucher :  "  What  is 
most  needed  for  the  firm  establishment  of  Christianity  is 
a  thoroughly  good  system  of  secondary  and  higher  edu- 
cation, including  a  university."  The  Church  of  Christ 
would  bless  Japan  and  best  intrench  herself  for  the  intel- 
lectual struggle  which  must  precede  the  supremacy  of 
the  Cross,  by  establishing  a  great  Christian  University, 
which,  sustained  by  all  the  missions,  would  represent, 
mould,  and  defend  the  higher  thought  of  the  Japanese 
Church.* 

*  "  My  observation  and  discussion  of  the  matter  with  a  num- 
ber of  representative  men  have,  during  the  past  few  years,  made 
me  feel  increasingly  that  a  first-class  Christian  University  is  the 
greatest  single  requisite  for  the  advancement  of  the  Christian 
movement  in  Japan." — G.  M.  Fisher.  "  The  same  law  operates 
in  Japan  as  in  the  West.  The  men  who  are  producing  the 
literature  of  Japan  are  those  who  are  teaching  in  the  Universi- 
ties or  who  have  had  University  training,  but  it  is  not  Christian 


330  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

In  no  other  non-Christian  nation  is  the  ability  and  the 
desire  to  read  so  advanced  as  in  Japan.  The  land  should 
be  flooded  with  Christian  literature.  A  riper  and  more 
opportune  time  will  never  come.  More  masterful  books 
written  by  Japanese  are  needed,  which  will  appeal  to  the 
intellect,  the  heart,  and  the  moral  sense  of  readers.  Such 
books  should  present  the  evidences,  the  history,  and  the 
vital  parts  of  Christianity.  And  another  class  is  needed 
to  show  the  inadequacy  of  Shintoism,  the  limitations  of 
Confucianism,  and  the  decrepitude  of  Buddhism  to  meet 
the  requirements  of  the  nation,  groping  as  it  is  for  funda- 
mental moral  standards,  perplexed  about  all  religions,  yet 
hungry  for  God. 

The  bulk  of  missionaries  and  Japanese  workers  are 
found  in  the  larger  centres.  Not  a  man  can  be  spared 
from  these  most  strategic  points,  but  large  reinforce- 
ments of  missionaries  and  Japanese  evangelists  are 
needed  to  spread  the  Gospel  in  country,  towns,  and  vil- 
lages. Towns  of  ten  thousand  can  be  found  in  many 
provinces  in  which  no  Christian  work  is  done.  The  prov- 
ince of  Niigata,  against  a  population  of  i,857'775>  has  a 
total  of  500  resident  Christians.  Six  towns  over  ten 
thousand  have  no  form  of  Christian  work,  not  to  mention 
many  towns  below  ten  thousand  and  hundreds  of  villages. 
Up  and  down  the  land  in  other  provinces  there  are  hun- 
dreds of  such  places  where  a  Christian  song  has  never 
been  sung,  where  a  Bible  has  never  been  seen,  and 
where  a  Christian  prayer  has  never  been  uttered. 

Japan's  pressing  need  of  Christ  is  evident  from  a  com- 
parison of  the  Christian  and  non-Christian  forces.  There 
are    71,770*    Buddhist    temples    and     137,134    Shinto 

Literature.  On  the  other  hand,  its  presuppositions,  its  stand- 
point, its  attitude  are  distinctly  unfavourable  to  Christianity. 
And  further,  this  literary  output  is  increasing  in  volume  and  in 
intellectual  mastery  every  year  that  passes." — T.  H.  Haden. 

*  Besides  the  71,770  temples  called  Btitsuji  there  are  36,743 
other  Buddhist  temples  Butsudo.  In  these  latter  there  are  no 
officiating  priest  and  no  burial  grounds.    While  they  belong  to 


JAPAN'S  NEED  OF  CHRIST  331 

shrines,  a  total  of  208,904.  Against  this  we  have  831 
organized  churches  and  565  church  buildings.  The  Shin 
sect  of  Buddhism  (and  there  are  about  two  score  sects 
all  told)  has  19,531  temples  and  15,195  priests.  The 
Sodo  sect  has  14,215  temples  and  9,890  priests.  A  total 
of  58,831  priests  and  temples  for  the  two  largest  sects 
of  Buddhism.  Against  this  total,  there  were  73,226 
Protestant  communicants  in  1913.  The  total  priesthood 
of  the  ancient  faiths  of  Japan  is  67,248.  Against  this  we 
have  962  missionaries,  including  wives,  1,354  ordained 
and  unordained  Japanese  preachers,  and  431  Bible 
women.  About  one-seventh  of  the  missionaries  are  ab- 
sent from  the  field  on  furlough  or  sick  leave,  and  about 
one-tenth  of  the  remainder  is  non-effective  because  of 
language  study  or  other  reasons.  The  effective  force 
would  therefore  be  about  three-fourths  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  missionaries.  About  one-third  of  the  whole  force 
are  the  wives  of  missionaries,  who  spend  much  of  their 
time  with  their  children  or  in  domestic  affairs.  The  male 
missionaries  in  Japan  this  year  number  328.  Reducing 
this  by  one-fourth  we  have  246  men  as  the  effective  force. 
As  a  considerable  number  of  these  are  engaged  in  school 
work,  the  active  force  for  direct  evangelism  is  too  small. 
The  need  therefore  of  a  large  increase  in  the  missionary 
force  must  be  evident  to  every  one  who  loves  Japan  and 
who  prays  for  its  Christianization. 

We  see,  in  Japan,  old  wooden  Torii  (temple  gate- 
ways) replaced  by  granite,  old  temples  freshly  adorned 
and  new  ones  gilded.  We  can  see  continuous  streams  of 
living  souls  who  at  temple  portals  throw  the  coin,  tap 
the  gong  to  arouse  the  God,  then  bow  their  heads  and 
clap  their  hands  in  prayer.  We  know  that  Dagon  is 
still  enthroned.     We  think  of  the  Cross  of  the  patient 

no  particular  sect  of  Buddhism,  they  are  resorted  to  for  wor- 
ship as  they  have  their  idols  which  differ  according  to  locality. 
The  influence  of  these  108,513  Buddhist  temples  upon  the  mil- 
lions of  Japan  is  not  inconsiderable. 


332  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

Christ,  of  the  tardy  Church.  We  cry  for  more  reapers. 
We  reconsecrate  ourselves : 

"  Give  me  Thy  heart,  O  Christ !  Thy  love  untold, 
That  I  like  Thee  may  pity,  like  Thee  may  preach. 
For  'round  me  spreads  on  every  side  a  waste 
Drearer  than  that  which  moved  Thy  soul  to  sadness." 

As  of  old,  the  Son  of  man  stands  where  multitudes  pass, 
and  He  cries :  "  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  unto 
me  and  drink."  As  of  old,  He  has  compassion  for  multi- 
tudes "  distressed  and  scattered  as  sheep  having  no 
Shepherd."  To  you  and  to  me  He  says :  "  The  harvest 
indeed  is  plenteous,  but  the  labourers  are  few.  Pray, 
therefore,  the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  he  send  forth 
more  labourers  into  his  harvest." 


VII 
OUR  ABILITY  AND  RESPONSIBILITY 


Christianity  is  a  product  of  which  the  more  we  export  the 
more  we  have  at  home. 

It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  who  is  in  Heaven  that  one 
of  these  little  ones  should  perish. — Matthew  xviii,  14. 

All  that  we  have  done  is  but  a  skirmish — the  big  battles 
against  ignorance  and  wrong  and  darkness  are  before  us. — 
Herbert  Kaufman,  Los  Angeles  Times,  January  4,  1913. 

But  a  reason  that  does  no  thinking  for  itself,  and  a  con- 
science that  flings  aside  no  temptation  and  springs  to  no  duty, 
affection  that  toils  in  no  chosen  service  of  love,  a  religions  senti- 
ment that  waits  for  such  faith  as  may  come  to  it,  simply  nega- 
tive their  own  functions  and  disappear. — Martineau,  quoted  in 
"  The  Problems  of  Philosophy,"  p.  76. 

We  are  at  the  parting  of  the  ways.  The  final  outcome  may  be 
the  decay  and  extinction  of  Western  civilization,  or  it  may  be 
a  new  epoch  in  the  evolution  of  the  race,  compared  with  which 
our  present  era  will  seem  like  a  modified  barbarism. — Walter 
Rauschenbush,  "  Christianizing  the  Social  Order,"  p.  40. 

Can  we  dream  of  anything  nobler  and  finer  than  this  divine 
commission  which  our  Lord  gave  to  His  church?  Is  there 
any  exploit  of  chivalry,  any  glory  of  military  achievement,  any 
attainment  of  scholarship,  any  service  of  culture,  even  any  height 
or  depth  of  patriotic  or  humanitarian  sacrifice,  which  can  com- 
pare in  simple  beauty,  grandeur,  and  worth  with  this  superb  min- 
istry, in  God's  name,  and  at  Christ's  command,  to  the  soul  life 
of  humanity  ? — James  S.  Dennis,  "  The  New  Horoscope  of 
Missions."  p.  23. 

We  know  the  paths  wherein  our  feet  should  press. 

Across  our  hearts  are  written  Thy  decrees, 
Yet  now,  O  Lord,  be  merciful  to  bless 

With  more  than  these. 
Grant  us  the  will  to  fashion  as  we  feel. 

Grant  us  the  strength  to  labour  as  we  know, 
Grant  us  the  purpose,  ribbed  and  edged  with  steel, 

To  strike  the  blow. 
Knowledge,  we  ask  not — knowledge  Thou  hast  lent, 

But,  Lord,  the  will — there  lies  our  bitter  need, 
Give  us  to  build  above  the  deep  intent 
The  deed,  the  deed. 
—John  Drinkwater,  quoted  in  Japan  Evangelist,  August,  191 1. 


VII 

OUR  ABILITY  AND  RESPONSIBILITY 

FOR  a  long  time  the  ancients  supplied  us  with  The 
Seven  Wonders  of  the  World.*  They  were  of 
the  massive,  immovable  sort  which  could  be  seen 
by  the  eye  and  cost  much  money  and  sweat.  But  these 
wonders  have  been  revised.  The  editor  of  the  Popular 
Mechanics  Monthly  wrote  to  about  one  thousand  sci- 
entists and  men  of  note  for  their  vote  on  what  they  con- 
sidered the  real  seven  wonders  of  the  world.  The  ma- 
jority of  votes  stood  for :  the  wireless,  the  telephone,  the 
aeroplane,  radium,  antiseptics  and  antitoxins,  spectrum 
analysis,  and  the  X-ray.  The  next  revision  will  show 
the  triumph  of  the  human  heart  regenerated  by  the  truth, 
the  love,  and  the  power  of  Christ.  There  will  be  so 
many  wonders  that  seven  plus  seventy  times  seven  will 
not  complete  the  list.  In  that  day,  every  idol  will  have 
fallen  and  every  temple  will  have  been  rededicated  to  the. 
worship  of  God  the  Father.  Swords  and  armour  plate 
will  be  turned  into  sewing  machines  and  steel  granaries 
to  hold  the  fruitage  of  earth,  because  the  energies  of 
man  shall  be  turned  to  subdue  the  earth,  so  that  "  the 
desert  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as  the  rose."  The  treas- 
ures of  wealth  will  be  laid  at  Jesus'  feet  and  man's  intel- 
lect will  be  employed  to  banish  pain  and  ignorance.  Even 
the  poor  will  have  an  instrument  for  praise,  for  "  the 
tongue  of  the  dumb  shall  sing  "  and  "  sorrow  and  sighing 
shall  flee  away."  f 

*  They  were  the  Pyramids,  Pharos  of  Alexandria,  the  Hanging 
Gardens  of  Babylon,  the  Temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus,  the 
Statue  of  Jupiter  by  Phidias  at  Athens,  the  Mausoleum  of  Arte- 
misia, the  Colossus  at  Rhodes. 

t  In  this  last  chapter  the  author  has  in  mind  not  only  Japan 

335 


S36  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

From  the  middle  of  the  Fifteenth  Century  to  the  middle 
of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  providential  events  occurred  as 
starters  in  this  last  great  crusade.  The  Protestant 
reformation,  the  invention  of  printing,  the  discovery  of 
America,  the  landing  of  colonists  in  the  new  world  were 
extraordinary  and  necessary  events  in  preparation  for 
the  modern  missionary  propaganda.* 

One  hundred  years  ago  it  was  an  impossibility  to  get 
far  into  the  pagan  or  Mohammedan  world.  Little  was 
known  of  Africa  away  from  the  coast  line.  Turkey  and 
other  Moslem  states  were  shut  tight.  Japan,  China,  and 
Korea  were  sealed  to  all  traders,  travellers,  or  mission- 
aries. But  to-day  doors  are  open  everywhere  and  some 
are  ofif  their  hinges.  "  When  Stanley  started,  in  1874, 
for  his  journey  of  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  days 
across  Africa,  in  the  course  of  seven  thousand  miles  he 
never  met  a  Christian."  f  But  to-day  both  Africa  and 
Asia  are  being  belted  by  railways  and  lines  of  mission 
stations. 

When  Carey  sailed  for  India  in  1793,  there  was  but  one 
republic  in  the  world.  To-day  there  are  twenty-four 
republics  and  an  equal  number  of  constitutional  mon- 
archies.J    Just  as  despotisms  have  fallen  and  man  for 

but  all  mission  fields.  How  can  one  intelligently  pray  "  Thy  will 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven  "  unless  his  heart  feels  for  all 
who  stray?  While  Japan  is  the  most  strategic  mission  field, 
Korea  is  the  ripest,  China  the  greatest,  Tibet  the  most  remote, 
India  the  most  pitiable,  the  Levant  the  most  impregnable,  and 
Africa  the  darkest. 

*  The  Diet  of  Worms  was  in  1521 ;  Gutenberg's  Bible  was 
printed  in  1450-1455;  the  French  Huguenots  led  in  the  first  at- 
tempt at  settlement  within  the  United  States  at  Port  Royal, 
South  Carolina,  in  1562. 

tJohn  R.  Mott,  "The  Pastor  and  Modem  Missions,"  p.  13. 

$  "  Of  the  fifty-six  principal  countries  in  the  world,  twenty-four 
are  governed  by  constitutional  monarchs,  twenty-four  have 
adopted  a  republican  form  of  government,  seven  are  under  an 
absolute  monarchy,  and  one  (Tibet)  is  ruled  by  an  oligarchy.— 
The  Christian  Herald  Almanac,  1913,  p.  37^ 


OUR  ABILITY  AND  RESPONSIBILITY       337 

the  first  time  has  come  to  know  the  world's  geography, 
invention  has  given  us  the  wireless,  the  ocean  cable,  the 
fast  express,  and  floating  castles  of  the  sea.  And  thus 
faster  and  still  faster,  more  and  still  more,  are  sent  forth 
Bibles,  hospitals,  schools,  and  missionaries  to  make  Christ 
known. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  century  500,000  converts  had 
been  won,  but  there  were  few  church  buildings,  few 
portions  of  Scripture  were  in  circulation,  and  but  few 
of  the  wealthy  and  mighty  had  been  called.  As  the 
result  of  this  last  century  of  mission  effort,  there  are 
4,249,623  baptized  Christians,  24,092  missionaries,  and 
111,862  native  workers.  But  in  spite  of  progress  and 
success,  we  have  not  whereof  to  boast.  Near  a  billion 
in  idolatrous  lands  are  still  out  of  Christ  and  the  greater 
part  have  no  means  of  hearing  of  Him.  A  billion !  Few 
can  grasp  even  the  cold  idea  of  a  million,  but  people 
a  million  with  souls  and  then  do  it  one  thousand  times. 
Who  but  God  can  know  the  tragedy  of  a  billion  lost? 
Who  but  the  Crucified  can  know  the  awful  footing  of 
the  long  column  where  there  is  registered  the  tears,  the 
sin,  the  hopelessness  of  a  billion  souls  without  God  and 
strangers  to  His  love! 

We  have  the  machinery  and  the  equipment  for  mis- 
sions which  the  early  Church  did  not  have.  But  they 
excelled  us  in  faith  and  personal  sacrifice  to  make  the 
glad  tidings  known.  In  spite  of  our  missionary  statistics, 
running  into  the  millions,  it  must  be  confessed  with 
heartache  that  our  averages  are  pitifully  small.  In  the 
United  States,  "  over  one-third  of  the  congregations  and 
parishes  take  no  part  in  the  expansion  of  Christianity 
beyond  our  borders.  And  what  to  my  mind  is  the  most 
serious,  the  average  contribution  at  present  is  about 
seventy  cents."  *  Last  year  the  United  States  gave  $14,- 
942,523  to  foreign  missions,  which  is  not  quite  one- 
fiftieth  of  the  poultry  products  of  the  L^nited   States, 

♦John  R.  Mott,  "  Men  and  Religious  Measures,"  Vol.  IV,  p.  311. 


338  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

and  is  just  about  equal  the  price  of  one  super-dread- 
naught.  There  are  thirty-three  women  in  the  United 
States  who  have  an  annual  income  of  $30,250,000,  if 
we  compute  a  five  per  cent  return  on  their  fortunes. 

We  are  building  magnificent  temples  in  the  United 
States,  twelve  every  day  in  the  year,  but  the  true  temple 
of  God  is  the  human  heart.  The  Almighty  who  spread 
out  the  milky  way  cannot  be  pleased  with  brick  and 
mortar  and  clanging  bells  of  brass,  or  even  paid  soloists 
and  organists,  if  the  Church  neglects  the  parting  words 
of  his  Son,  and  is  indifferent  to  the  tears  of  millions  of 
wandering  sons  whom  He  would  make  joint  heirs  with 
His  Beloved.  If  we  believe  the  Book  and  own  the  Lord- 
ship of  Christ,  then  our  faith  and  work  ought  to  measure 
up  to  the  world's  needs  and  our  own  opportunities.  God 
has  broken  down  every  barrier.  Millions  cry — and  wait 
while  they  cry — beseeching,  "  Give  us  life,  give  us  life !  " 
And  yet  the  majority  of  Christians  rock  along  just  as  if 
what  ought  to  be  first  can  be  put  last,  or  attended  to 
any  time  in  the  next  thousand  years. 

Centuries  ago,  shortly  after  the  Turks  had  captured 
Jerusalem  (a.d.  1076),  a  French  monk  made  his  pil- 
grimage to  the  Holy  Land.  Here  he  was  mistreated, 
and  with  a  heavy  heart  he  beheld  the  sepulchre  of  his 
Lord  in  the  hands  of  infidels.  He  made  his  appeal  to 
the  Patriarch  at  Constantinople,  but  Constantinople  itself 
was  none  too  secure,  and  so  this  man  of  small  stature 
and  contemptible  appearance  said,  "  I  will  arouse  the 
martial  nations  of  Europe  in  your  cause."  And  he  did. 
Kissing  the  feet  of  the  Roman  pontiff  and  securing  his 
approval,  he  went  from  city  to  city  and  from  town  to 
town.  He  bore  a  heavy  crucifix  and  went  bareheaded 
and  barefooted,  with  a  coarse  garment  thrown  about  his 
body.  With  an  enthusiasm  as  contagious  as  a  flame,  and 
with  a  vehemence  as  irresistible  as  a  spring  flood,  he 
joined  Urban  II  in  a  campaign  that  aroused  Europe, 
shook  it  out  of  well-worn  social  ruts,  and  hurled   its 


OUR  ABILITY  AND  RESPONSIBILITY       339 

armies  for  two  hundred  years  against  the  Turk  and 
Saracen.  And  why  ?  The  people  thought  and  the  thou- 
sands shouted,  "  It  is  the  will  of  God !  It  is  the  will 
of  God !  "  With  all  the  opportunities  awaiting  us  in 
Christless  lands,  and  with  the  men,  the  ability,  and  the 
heaven-given  authority  to  enter  in  His  name — oh,  that 
there  were  a  Peter  the  Hermit  to  move  us  to  prayer, 
to  sacrifice,  to  the  gentleness  of  love  and  the  healing 
ministry  of  preaching  the  Gospel  "  unto  every  nation  and 
tribe  and  tongue  and  people." 

Led  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  who  coined  and  de- 
fended the  phrase,  "  The  evangelization  of  the  world  in 
this  generation  "  conferred  a  blessing  on  the  Church  and 
the  unredeemed  of  every  generation.  The  phrase  tersely 
expresses  the  privilege,  the  ability,  and  the  duty  of 
the  Church.  Since  our  Lord  gave  the  great  commission, 
there  has  not  been  a  proposition  for  the  Church  so  full 
of  faith  and  challenge.  It  proposes  a  test  of  love  for 
the  lost  and  of  loyalty  to  our  marching  orders.  It  is  the 
only  thing  that  would  call  forth  the  unused  power  of 
the  Church  and  clothe  her  with  a  battle  armour  that 
would  be  glorious  and  all-conquering. 

Let  the  man  of  the  world  smile,  and  enervated  the- 
ologians stagger  under  the  proposition  if  they  will,  we 
are  fast  approaching  the  time  when,  by  Gentile,  Jew,  or 
Oriental,  every  creature,  family,  and  tribe  shall  hear  the 
Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  The  daring  audacity  of  the 
watchword  is  enough  to  give  old  Satan  the  shivers.  Let 
the  Church  march  out  with  a  serious  purpose  and  thor- 
ough equipment  to  set  the  millions  of  earth  free,  and 
we  will  see  lively  times  down  on  this  footstool  of  God. 
The  glorious  day  of  victory  will  not  come  without  a 
stupendous  struggle.  To  sit  in  idle  comfort  and  con- 
template the  pleasurable  prospects  of  the  millennium, 
contributes  neither  an  hour  nor  a  dollar  nor  a  prayer 
towards  its  dawn.  There  are  some  easygoers  who  have 
it  settled  in  their  minds  that  the  time  has  just  about 


340  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

arrived  when  we  can  rush  into  victory  tucked  away  in 
a  sleeper  on  a  train  de  kixe. 

Such  have  forgotten  that  the  tranquillity  enjoyed  by 
the  messengers  of  the  Cross  to-day  rests  back  on  the 
preponderance  of  power  held  by  the  so-called  Christian 
nations.  No  calculation  can  be  made  of  Asia's  final  atti- 
tude toward  the  Christ  until  it  is  master  of  its  own 
riches,  armaments,  and  political  activities,  internal  and 
international.  If  the  granting  of  constitutions  and  the 
rise  of  republics  mean  anything,  they  mean  that  power 
belongs  to  the  majority,  to  the  masses.  If  this  be  so, 
who  can  be  sure  that  England's  beneficent  reign  over 
India  will  last  another  hundred  years?  Who  can  say 
that  upon  the  basis  of  a  common  religion  Afghan,  Per- 
sian, and  awakened  Turk  may  not  within  this  century 
have  their  triple  alliance  ? 

To-day  we  say  as  we  measure  ability  and  opportunity, 
"  We  can  do  it  if  we  will,"  or  "  We  can  do  it  and  we 
will."  But  we  should  not  presume  too  much  for  the 
morrow.  If  we  look  back  to  the  tumult  at  Ephesus,  back 
to  Jerusalem  which  for  envy  crucified  the  Lord,  back 
to  Imperial  Rome  which  sought  to  destroy  the  only 
thing  that  would  have  saved  itself  from  destruction,  or 
upon  Turkey  which  for  centuries  has  resisted  the  leaven 
which  would  have  arrested  its  own  disintegration — we 
learn  facts  that  are  true  for  every  age.  Any  marked 
success  of  the  Church  begets  opposition.  "  I  came  not 
to  send  peace  but  a  sword."  The  Church  can  make  no 
compromise  with  lust,  vanity,  selfishness,  or  superstition. 
The  Gospel  makes  a  sweeping  demand  that  the  unre- 
generated  man  resists.  And  where  units  of  such  men 
are  gathered  into  millions  and  given  power  unrestrained, 
if  they  fail  in  argument  or  threat  against  the  Church, 
they  usually  seek  to  destroy  it  during  the  incipient  stages 
of  its  growth. 

There  are  special  reasons  why  Canada  and  the  United 
States  should  take  the  lead  in  this  era  of  the  world's 


OUR  ABILITY  AND  RESPONSIBILITY       341 

evangelization.  God's  providences  and  special  grace  have 
been  openly  displayed  in  their  behalf.  He  has  given  them 
the  garden  part  of  the  great  continent  which  He  con- 
cealed till  the  proper  time  approached.  Then  he  peopled 
it  and  blessed  it  with  riches  and  peace.  In  the  coming 
of  the  Huguenots,  the  Pilgrims,  the  Friends,  God  tem- 
pered the  cupidity  of  explorers  and  the  vanity  of  men 
who  ever  seek  new  and  unsettled  fields  because  of 
plunder  or  adventure.  We  to-day  are  the  children  of 
a  brave  and  noble  company  who  flocked  to  America  for 
the  glory  of  God,  for  the  free  interpretation  and  spread 
of  His  Kingdom.  We  would  be  untrue  to  the  blood 
that  is  in  us  if  we  failed  to  push  still  farther  westwards 
the  boundaries  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

The  border-line  between  the  United  States  and  Canada 
is  dismantled  of  forts.  Instead  of  terminal  stations  for 
the  quick  massing  and  dashing  of  troops,*  nothing  more 
dangerous  can  be  found  than  custom  houses,  grain  ele- 
vators, and  depots  jammed  and  crammed  with  the  ex- 
change of  factory  and  farm.  Like  an  immense  moat, 
God  has  thrown  the  oceans  around  America  that  it  may 
rest  secure  from  invasion,  and  that  it  may,  without  dis- 
traction, turn  its  fabulous  energies  and  resources  into  the 
ways  of  peace  for  the  world's  spiritual  enrichment. 

Before  his  death,  Vice-President  Sherman  said :  "  Our 
nation  possesses  but  seven  per  cent  of  the  area  of  the 
earth  and  yet,  industrially,  we  about  equal  one-half 
the  balance  of  mankind.  We  have  twice  as  much  life 
insurance  as  half  the  rest  of  the  world  and  half  as  much 
money  on  deposit  in  our  savings  banks  as  all  the  rest  of 

*  "  Europe  is  only  a  little  greater  in  extent  than  the  United 
States,  but  within  this  comparatively  narrow  space,  wherein 
400,000,000  persons  daily  wage  the  painful  fight  for  their  daily 
bread,  more  than  3,500,000  men  are  under  arms,  day  in,  day  out, 
withdrawn  from  peaceful  labour  and  training  only  for  battle 
against  one  another." — Colonel  Richard  Gadke,  "  Peace  and 
Disarmament,"  in  McClure's  for  November,  1910. 


S42  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

the  world.  Our  expenses  for  education  are  two-thirds  as 
much  as  is  spent  by  all  the  rest  of  the  world.  One-third 
of  the  revenue  collected  by  governments  is  ours,  while 
our  debt  is  but  one-thirtieth  of  the  debt  of  the  world." 
He  further  said :  "  Ambition  is  inspired  by  opportunity. 
Ambition  and  opportunity  have  inspired  and  developed 
genius."  And  it  may  be  truly  said  of  Canada  and  the 
United  States  if  their  riches  and  world-wide  opportunity 
to  serve  Christ  develop  no  inspiration  of  sacrifice  and 
no  genius  in  gospel  conquest^  then  from  them  "  The  King- 
dom of  God  shall  be  taken  away  "  "  and  shall  be  given 
to  the  nations  bringing  forth  the  fruits  thereof." 

Covetousness  is  as  great  a  sin  as  sensuality.  A  churcR 
member  who  steals  chickens  or  gets  tipsy  deserves  the 
condemnation  of  the  congregation.  We  have  developed 
a  conscience  on  temperance  and  hen  coops.  We  need  a 
personal  and  widely  distributed  conscience  on  missions. 
Our  craze  for  division  of  labour  has  given  the  missionary 
and  the  mission  boards  the  missionary  conscience,  and 
has  allotted  the  money  monopoly  to  bankers,  millionaires, 
and  installment  investors  in  autos.  The  professed 
Christian  who  does  not  give  or  cannot  be  educated  to 
give  for  missions  for  which  his  Lord  gave  up  Heaven 
and  life  itself,  in  very  truth  needs  the  Gospel,  the  prayers 
of  saints,  and  the  pity  of  angels.  Dull  of  heart  and 
shockingly  depraved,  he  will  not  be  convinced  of  his  re- 
volting selfishness  till  the  day  when  the  King  says,  "  In- 
asmuch as  ye  did  not  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  ye  did 
it  not  to  me." 

While  visiting  the  Christian  Orphans'  Home  in  St. 
Louis,  I  had  just  entered  a  room  where  there  were  a 
score  or  so  of  little  ones,  when  they  all  made  a  rush  for 
me,  an  entire  stranger,  and  with  upturned  faces  and 
outstretched  hands,  they  cried,  "  Boost  me !  boost  me !  " 
These  fatherless  ones  wanted  most  what  they  had  most 
missed — the  caresses  and  tosses  of  a  man.  So  one  by 
one  I  took  their  little  hands,  few  of  which  had  lost  the 


OUR  ABILITY  AND  RESPONSIBILITY       343 

dimples  of  tender  years,  and  grasping  each  one  under 
the  arms,  I  gave  them  a  boost  into  the  air  and  a  hug 
on  the  way  down.  Each  Httle  face  beamed  with  satis- 
faction as  they  saw  their  mates,  one  by  one,  get  the 
much  coveted  boost;  and  how  different  are  men  from 
children?  Is  it  not  the  boost  of  affection,  the  touch  of 
love,  which  this  world  most  needs  and  craves? 

Jacob  A.  Riis  tells  a  tale  of  a  young  Dane  *  who  had 
come  to  America  to  seek  his  fortune,  and  it  came  by  the 
way  of  hunger,  cold,  and  the  kick  of  New  York  City's 
police,  as  he  was  driven  from  sleep  with  the  orders, 
"  Get  up  there !  Move  on !  "  One  night  found  him  in 
the  cold  rain  on  the  bank  of  the  North  River,  listening  to 
"  the  swish  of  the  dark  tide  and  thinking  of  home." 
But  darker  thoughts  came  into  his  brain,  for  the  world 
seemed  against  him  and  he  was  tempted  to  seek  an  end 
to  his  miseries  with  the  night  and  the  river  below.  Just 
then  his  little  pet  dog  whined.  It  was  a  little  black-and- 
tan  castaway,  now,  like  himself,  wet  and  forlorn.  It 
climbed  up  on  his  lap  and  licked  his  face  as  much  as 
to  say,  "  Don't  do  it ;  I  am  here,  and  I  love  you  if  no 
one  else  does."  It  was  nothing  but  a  dog  love,  but  it 
was  sufficient  to  give  him  the  needed  boost  upwards. 
Clasping  the  dog  in  his  arms,  he  ran  away  from  the 
darkness  and  the  tempter,  away  to  the  lights  of  the  city 
and  the  mission  God  had  for  him.  The  world,  God's 
lost  M'orld,  needs  your  boost,  your  love-touch. 

God  was  in  His  Son  and  through  His  Son  He  sought 
and  still  seeks  the  straying  that  they  may  find  penitence 
and  hope  nestled  close  to  His  fatherly  and  compassionate 
breast.  And  God  calls  you  and  me  to  go  with  His  love 
message — go  anywhere  and  everywhere — go  even  if  it 
costs.  In  the  last  great  day  our  pedigree,  the  colour  of 
our  skin,  our  degrees  in  lodge  or  school,  will  count  but 
little.  What  will  it  matter  then  if  we  owned  stock  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Railway  or  sailed  in  a  ship  or  flying  ma- 

*"  Making  of  an  American,"  illustrated  edition,  pp.  10-71. 


344  THE  OPPORTUNITY 

chine?  The  pertinent  and  vital  issue  will  be  whether 
we  have  done  any  boosting  or  whether  we  have  turned 
any  darkness  into  light  or  helped  Christ  draw  a  soul 
heavenward  by  the  cable  of  truth  made  secure  by  the 
love-coupling.  God  wants  me  and  He  wants  you  to 
be  a  co-labourer  with  Him  in  winning  back  His  prodigal 
world.  He  wants  us  to  fight  the  good  fight  against 
everything  and  everybody  who  opposes  His  great  work. 
Then  at  no  distant  day  we  can  stack  our  arms,  break 
ranks,  and  join  with  the  multitudes  in  the  shout  of  vic- 
tory. The  universe  itself  will  reverberate  with  the  tu- 
multuous jubilation.  The  hosts  who  have  burned  their 
idols  will  shout  as  "  the  voice  of  a  great  multitude  " ;  the 
victorious  Church  will  catch  up  the  shout  "  as  the  voice 
of  raany  waters  " ;  all  the  angels  and  intelligences  about 
the  throne  will  join  "  as  the  voice  of  mighty  thunder- 
ings,  saying.  Hallelujah :  for  the  Lord  our  God,  the  Al- 
mighty reigneth."  The  kingdom  of  the  world  is  become 
the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ." 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX  A 

{See  Part  Two,  Chapter  I) 

A  List  of  Books  Whose  Authors  Are  or  Have  Been  Mission- 
aries IN  Japan 

Awdry,  Mrs.  Frances :  Daylight  for  Japan. 

Atkinson,  John  L. :  Prince  Siddartha ;  The  Japanese  Buddha. 

Armstrong,  R.  C. :  Just  Before  the  Dawn. 

Albrecht,  George  E. :  Translation  of  Ritter's  History  of  Prot- 
estant Missions  in  Japan. 

Batchelor,  John:  The  Ainu  of  Japan;  Ainu  and  Their  Folk- 
lore; A  Grammar  of  the  Ainu  Language;  An  Ainu  English- 
Japanese  Dictionary. 

Ballagh,  Mrs.  Margaret  T.  K. :  Glimpses  of  Old  Japan,  1861- 
1866. 

Brown,  S.  R. :  Japanese  Language. 

Carrothers,  Mrs.  C.:  The  Sunrise  Kingdom;  Kesa  and  Saijiro. 

Carey,  Otis:  Japan  and  Its  Regeneration;  A  History  of  Christian- 
ity in  Japan,  2  vols. 

Clement,  Ernest  W. :  A  Handbook  of  Modern  Japan ;  Chris- 
tianity in  Modern  Japan ;  Japanese  Floral  Calendar ;  Hildreth's 
Japan  As  It  Was  and  Is,  Revised  and  Annotated. 

Campbell,  William :  Formosa  Under  the  Dutch. 

DeForest,  John  H. :  Sunrise  in  the  Sunrise  Kingdom. 

Davis,  J.  D. :  Joseph  Hardy  Neesima. 

Dening,  Walter:  Life  of  Toyotomi  Hideyashi ;  Japan  in  Days 
of  Yore;  High  School  Series  of  Readers,  6  vols.;  Anglo- 
Japanese  Readers,  4  vols.;  Specimens  of  Translations;  Sum- 
maries and  Essays  for  Asiatic  Society  and  many  periodicals. 

Faulds,  Henry :  Nine  Years  in  Nippon. 

Gordon,  M.  L. :  An  American  Missionary  in  Japan ;  Thirty 
Eventful  Years  in  Japan. 

Gulick,  Sidney  L. :  Evolution  of  the  Japanese ;  The  White  Peril 
in  the  Far  East. 

Garst,  Mrs.  Laura  D. :  A  West  Pointer  in  the  Land  of  the 
Mikado. 

Gring,  Ambrose  D. :  Eclectic  Chinese-Japanese  English  Dic- 
tionary, 

347 


348  APPENDIX 

Hepburn,  Dr.  J.  C. :  A  Japanese-English  and  English- Japanese 

Dictionary. 
Hail,  A.  D. :  Japan  and  Its  Rescue. 
Imbrie,  William:  English-Japanese  Etymology;  The  Church  of 

Christ  in  Japan. 
Kitchin,  W.  C. :  Paoli,  the  Last  of  the  Missionaries. 
Knapp,  Arthur  M. :  Feudal  and  Modern  Japan. 
Knox,   George   William :   The   Spirit  of  the  Orient ;   Japanese 

Life   in   Town   and   Country;    Development   of   Religions   in 

Japan. 
Lloyd,  Arthur:   Kenshin's  Vision;   The  Creed  of  Half  Japan; 

Every-Day    Japan;    Wheat    Among    the    Tares;    Praises    of 

Amida;  Shinran  and  His  Work. 
Lampe,  William  E. :  The  Japanese  Social  Organization. 
Murphey,  U.  S. :  The  Social  Evil  in  Japan. 
McCauley,  Mrs.  F.  C.   (pseudonym,  Frances  Little)  :  The  Lady 

of  the  Decoration ;  Little  Sister  Snow ;  The  Lady  and  Sada  San. 
Mackay,  George  L. :  From  Far  Formosa. 

Madden,  Mrs.  Maud  W. :  Golden  Chopsticks  and  Other  Japa- 
nese Children's  Songs. 
McCaleb,  J.  M.:  From  Idols  to  God;  Christ  the  Light  of  the 

World. 
McLean,  Miss  M. :  Echoes  from  Japan;  Open  Doors  in  Japan. 
Moore,  H. :  The  Christian  Faith  in  Japan. 
Miller,  H.  K. :  History  of  the  Japan  Mission  of  the  Reformed 

Church. 
Noss,  Christopher:  Text-book  of  Colloquial  Japanese  (Based  on 

Lange's  Lehrbuch). 
Newton,  J.  C.  Calhoun:  Japan,  the  Country,  Court,  and  People. 
Pieters,    Albertus :    Mission    Problems    in   J"apan ;    The    Educa- 
tional System  of  Japan,  Prepared  from  Official  Sources. 
Pierson,  Mrs.  L.  H. :  The  Progress  of  a  Mission  in  Japan. 
Peery,  R.  B. :  The  Gist  of  Japan;  Lutherans  in  Japan. 
Scherer,  J.  A.  B. :  Young  Japan ;  Japan  To-day. 
Schwartz.  H.  B. :  In  Togo's  Country. 
Verbeck,   G.   F. :   A   Synopsis  of   All   the   Conjugations  of   the 

Japanese  Verbs ;  History  of  Protestant  Missions  in  Japan  (as 

contained  in  Osaka  Conference  Report). 
Vories,  William  Merrell :  A  Mustard  Seed  in  Japan. 
Weaver,  Mrs.  Gussie  C. :  The  House  that  a  Jap  Built. 
Warren,  C.  F. :  Japan  and  the  Japan  Mission  of  the  C.  M.  S. 


APPENDIX  349 

APPENDIX  B 

{See  Part  Three,  Chapter  I) 

The  Record  of  the  First  Baptisms  by  Protestant  Mission- 
aries IN  Japan 

The  baptism  of  Yano  Ryuzan  in  November,  1864,  was  men- 
tioned in  the  Chapter  "  The  Coming  of  the  Kingdom."  The 
next  baptisms  were  two  brothers.  Eleven  years  before  their 
baptism  one  of  them,  who  was  a  government  official,  was 
patrolling  the  harbour  at  Nagasaki  when  he  found  a  little 
book  floating  on  the  water  which  proved  to  be  a  copy  of  the 
New  Testament  in  Dutch.  Not  being  able  to  read  it,  he  sent 
to  Shanghai  and  bought  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  in 
Chinese.  The  official  was  commonly  known  by  the  name  of 
Murata  Wakasa.  He  imperilled  his  own  life  when,  some  years 
later,  he  called  upon  G.  F.  Verbeck  to  teach  him  the  Scriptures. 
A  servant  by  the  name  of  Motono  acted  as  a  messenger  in 
carrying  questions  back  and  forth  between  Mr.  Verbeck,  who 
resided  in  Nagasaki,  and  Murata's  home.  His  brother  Ayabe 
became  interested,  and  they  were  both  baptized  by  Mr.  Verbeck 
May  20,  1866.  The  same  spring  Bishop  Williams  baptized 
Shimura  of  the  Province  of  Higo.  The  next  baptisms  were  in 
May,  1868.  They  were  K.  Ajiki  (name  later  changed  to 
Awadzu),  the  retainer  of  Zeze  Honda,  and  K.  Suzuki,  a  re- 
tainer of  Lord  li  of  Hikone.  They  had  received  private  in- 
struction under  James  Ballagh  and  were  baptized  by  him.  The 
homes  of  these  two  young  men  were  on  the  opposite  sides  of 
Lake  Biwa,  but  they  were  not  known  to  each  other  till  they 
met  in  Yokohama. 

The  next  baptism  was  by  G.  F.  Verbeck,  the  same  summer. 
The  candidate  was  a  Buddhist  priest  who  had  suffered  in  various 
prisons  because  of  his  faith.  In  February,  1869,  David  Thompson 
•baptized  an  old  lady  and  two  young  men.  This  woman  and 
Mr.  Thompson  had  been  present  at  the  baptisms  of  K.  Ajiki  and 
K.  Suzuki,  previously  mentioned,  which  took  place  in  Dr.  Hep- 
burn's Dispensary.  The  two  baptized  by  Mr.  Thompson  were 
Kojiro  Suzuki  and  Y.  Ogawa.  Both  became  active  Christians, 
the  former  serving  as  an  evangelist  in  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Some  confusion  has  evidently  arisen  in  the  minds  of  historians 
between  the  K.  Suzuki  baptized  by  Mr.  Ballagh  and  the  Kojiro 
Suzuki  baptized  by  Mr.  Thompson.  The  Suzuki  baptized  by 
Mr.  Ballagh  went  with  a  band  of  students  to  Europe  in  the 


350  APPENDIX 

capacity  of  an  official.  Following  these  first  ten  converts,  bap- 
tized in  Japan,  there  was  one  more  before  the  baptisms  which 
led  to  the  organization  of  the  first  church,  namely  a  Mr.  Nimura, 
baptized  at  Nagasaki  by  George  Ensor,  a  missionary  of  the 
Church  Missionary  Society. 


APPENDIX  C 

(See  Part  Three,  Chapter  V) 

Sunday  School  Work  in  Japan  :  by  John  G.  Dunlop 

The  children  in  Japan  have  a  freedom  that  no  one  else  has. 
With  us  the  child  is  in  tutelage  but  the  adult  is  free;  while 
with  them  the  child  is  free  while  the  adult  is,  comparatively 
speaking,  in  bondage.  Not  merely  up  to  the  age  of  school  life, 
but  considerably  beyond  it,  the  child  has  a  degree  of  liberty 
far  greater  than  is  allowed  to  Western  children. 

This  freedom  of  the  child  is  a  happy  thing  for  Sunday  School 
work  in  Japan.  The  Japanese  people,  generations  behind  in 
child  psychology,  seem  to  think  that  it  does  not  matter  what 
a  child  learns,  in  morals  and  religions,  at  least,  up  to  twelve 
or  thirteen  years  of  age,  and  so  they  let  us  alone  in  a  large 
measure  in  our  work  for  children. 

Just  when  the  first  Sunday  School  was  organized  in  Japan 
probably  no  one  now  living  knows,  but  it  is  altogether  likely 
that  Japan  had  its  first  Sunday  School  before  it  had  its  first 
church.  The  first  Protestant  church  was  organized  in  March, 
1872,  but  already  twelve  and  a  half  years  missionaries  had  been 
at  work  in  Japan,  and  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  during 
that  dozen  years  some  beginnings  of  rough-and-ready  Sunday 
School  work,  at  least,  had  not  been  made.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century,  the  number  of  schools  was  recorded  as 
917,  teachers  and  scholars,  42,513.  The  total  number  of  organ- 
ized churches  (Protestant)  the  same  year  was  461,  and  the 
total  membership  was  44,281.  Thus  the  church  membership  and 
the  Sunday  School  membership  were  about  equal.  That  was 
in  1901.  Eleven  years  later,  in  1912,  the  figures  were:  Sunday 
Schools,  1,820;  teachers  and  scholars,  96,663;  and  for  the  same 
year  the  number  of  churches  recorded  was  636;  membership, 
66,952.  That  is  to  say,  in  eleven  years  church  membership  in- 
creased 50  per  cent  and  the  Sunday  School  membership  consid- 
erably over  100  per  cent. 

In  1907,  the  World's  Sunday  School  Association  appeared  on 
the  scene  in  Japan  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Frank  L.  Brown,  com- 


APPENDIX  351 

missioned  to  bring  about  more  organization  and  the  adoption 
of  more  up-to-date  methods.  Mr.  Brown's  visit  resulted  in  the 
organization  of  a  National  Sunday  School  Association,  with 
branches  in  many  parts  of  the  Empire.  The  association  has 
worked  principally  for  better  literature  and  better  methods.  A 
series  of  graded  lessons  has  been  prepared  and  is  in  use  in 
a  good  many  schools ;  and  public  meetings  to  advertise  the 
Sunday  School,  parlour  conference  of  workers,  and  institutes 
are  becoming  increasingly  common.  The  national  and  district 
organization  and  the  entire  new  impetus  since  1907  owe  much 
to  the  unfailing  sympathy  and  substantial  material  help  of  Mr. 
H.  J.  Heinz,  of  Pittsburg.  He  has  twice  visited  Japan,  his 
second  visit  in  1913  being  as  Chairman  of  the  Special  Com- 
mission of  the  World's  Sunday  School  Association  appointed 
to  study  Sunday  School  conditions  in  the  Far  East  and  to  report 
on  the  same  to  the  World's  Conference  in  Zurich. 

Under  the  new  stimulus,  the  Sunday  Schools  are  improving 
not  only  in  literature  and  methods,  but  also  in  housing  and 
equipment.  As  in  America  and  England,  a  new  style  of  building 
is  being  erected  for  church  purposes.  Church  architecture  is 
keeping  the  child  more  in  mind  than  it  used  to  do,  and  the 
Church  of  God  is  being  made  a  home  for  the  Sunday  School  as 
well  as  for  the  congregation.  As  for  equipment,  very  few 
schools  are  so  poor  as  not  to  have  an  organ.  Some,  in  the 
great  cities,  are  grand  enough  even  to  have  a  piano.  More 
systematic  efforts  are  put  forth  to  attract  new  pupils — and  to 
keep  the  old  ones.  Recognition  of  exemplary  scholars  by  means 
of  attendance  certificates  has  become  customary.  When  these 
honour  certificates  for  attendance  were  first  given  in  1909,  it 
was  a  revelation  and  a  matter  of  extreme  gratification  and 
comfort  to  learn  how  remarkable  had  been  the  attendance  of 
many  Sunday  School  pupils.  Four  hundred  and  twenty-one 
pupils  in  eighty-four  schools  received  certificates  the  first  year, 
and  four  pupils  received  special  prizes,  two  boys  in  a  Methodist 
school  in  Hirosaki,  in  the  north  of  Japan,  for  being  present 
every  Sunday  for  five  years,  and  two  girls  in  a  Presbyterian 
school  in  Tokyo  who  had  made  the  remarkable  record  of  at- 
tending every  school  session,  without  exception,  one  of  them 
for  six  years  and  the  other  one  for  ten.  As  in  America,  too, 
pupils  are  being  encouraged  to  own  and  to  bring  to  school  their 
own  Bibles  and  Testaments.  Increasingly  in  the  Sunday  Schools 
the  emphasis  is  being  put  upon  the  Bible. 

H  imitation  is  the  sincerest  flattery,  we  are  certainly  being 
flattered  in  more  than  one  quarter.  Buddhist  Sunday  Schools 
have  been  started  in  many  places,  but  as  a  rule  they  have  but 


352  APPENDIX 

an  ephemeral  existence.  The  self-indulgent  priest,  determining 
to  set  up  a  Sunday  School  to  offset  the  influence  of  the  hated 
Jesus-School,  is  like  a  man  starting  to  build  a  house  without 
first  sitting  down  to  count  the  cost — in  this  case  the  cost  in  love 
and  self-sacrifice.  The  other  frequent  foe  of  the  Sunday  School 
in  Japan,  the  public  school  teacher,  fares  no  better.  He,  too, 
lacks  the  strength  and  patience  needed  to  continue  to  fight 
against  an  invincible  cause.  He  may  succeed  in  breaking  up  one 
Sunday  School,  but  the  fragments  will  shortly  unite  for  a  new 
life,  or  a  new  school  will  appear  and  leave  him  in  despair  of 
ever  beating  back  this  supposed  enemy  of  order  and  loyalty. 
The  enemies  of  the  Sunday  School  are  finding  that  their  task 
is  as  hopeless  as  trying  to  sweep  back  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
With  the  steady  improvement  in  our  schools,  they  are  winning 
a  securer  place  in  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  non-Chris- 
tian parents,  and  we  have  numberless  cases  now  of  parents, 
themselves  not  Christians,  carefully  sending  their  children  to 
the  Christian  Sunday  School — and  needless  to  say,  themselves 
coming  increasingly  under  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 


APPENDIX  D 

(See  Part  Three,  Chapter  V) 

Christian  Endeavour  in  Japan  :  by  J.  H.  Pettee 

Almost  every  sort  of  organized  Christian  activity  that  has 
proved  its  efficiency  in  America  and  Europe  has  opened  a  branch 
work  in  Japan.  Christian  Endeavour  is  no  exception  to  this 
rule. 

The  first  C.  E.  Society  organized  in  this  country  was  among 
the  children  of  the  American  Board  Mission,  Dr.  J.  D.  Davis 
being  then  pastor  of  the  Mission  Church.  This  was  in  1885, 
and  the  orgainzation  has  continued  in  existence  up  to  the  present 
time.  At  least  21  of  its  graduates,  or  nearly  one-half,  have 
been  or  are  at  the  present  time  engaged  in  foreign  missionary 
service. 

The  first  society  among  the  Japanese  was  at  the  San-Yo  Girls' 
School  in  Okayama,  about  1888,  and  was  started  by  Miss  Gill 
(later  Mrs.  Severance),  a  missionary  then  residing  in  that  city. 
Other  early  societies  were  one  in  Kobe  Church  and  one  (Sun- 
shine Society)  in  Hokuriku  Girls'  School  at  Kanazawa.  The 
first  junior  society  was  organized  by  Methodist  Protestants  at 
Nagoya. 


APPENDIX  353 

Some  of  the  most  unique  societies  have  been  the  following: 
a  floating  society  in  the  Japanese  Navy,  a  society  for  post-office 
and  telegraph  employees  at  Sendai,  societies  (five  simultane- 
ously for  several  years)  in  the  Okayama  Orphanage,  one  for 
children  of  the  slums  in  connection  with  Miss  Adams's  work  in 
the  same  city,  a  society  for  ex-convicts  in  the  Kobe  Home  for 
Discharged  Prisoners,  one  for  reformed  criminals  working  in  a 
marble  mine  in  Nagato  Province,  and  quite  a  number  among 
students  in  missions  or  public  schools.  At  Nagasaki  there  is 
a  C.  E.  Seamen's  Home  for  seamen  of  all  nationalities. 

The  Japan  C.  E.  Union  was  formed  in  July,  1893,  with  36 
societies  enrolled.  Its  president,  until  four  years  ago,  was 
Rev.  (now  Dr.)  T.  Harada,  widely  known  and  honoured  as  the 
head  of  Doshisha  University  at  Kyoto.  He  was  succeeded  by 
Rev.  N.  Tamura  of  Tokyo  and  he  after  one  more  turn  under  Dr. 
Harada  by  the  present  head  of  the  Union,  Rev.  T.  Osada  of  Osaka. 
There  are  three  vice-presidents,  three  secretaries,  and  two  treas- 
urers, one  of  the  last-named  being  Rev.  J.  H.  Pettee  of  Okayama. 
The  society  headquarters  are  at  Kyoto,  in  charge  of  the  Chief 
Secretary,  Rev.  T.  Makino,  who  tours  among  the  churches  of 
central  Japan,  while  Rev.  G.  Fukuda  (who  represented  Japan  at 
the  Atlantic  City  Convention  in  191 1)  attends  to  eastern  and 
northern  Japan  and  the  other  secretary,  Mr.  T.  Sawaya,  who 
made  such  a  happy  impression  at  the  Seattle  Convention  in 
1909,  attends  to  the  western  and  southern  portions  of  the  Em- 
pire. He  was  appointed  delegate  from  Japan  to  the  Los 
Angeles,  Cal.,  Convention  held  in  the  summer  of  1913,  and 
the  Japan  Union  plans  to  send  a  representative,  probably  its 
president,  to  the  World's  C.  E.  Convention  to  be  held  at  Sydney, 
Australia,  in  1914. 

The  society  publishes  a  small  monthly  bilingual  magazine, 
Kwds-Sekai  (Endeavour  World),  and  holds  anually  a  wide- 
awake convention  that  is  one  of  the  great  features  of  the  united 
aggressive  evangelistic  Christian  work  in  Japan.  At  the  Nagoya 
convention  last  spring,  special  interest  was  attached  to  the 
street  preaching  from  automobiles  and  to  a  great  meeting  for 
the  general  public  held  in  the  new  city  hall.  In  191 1,  at  the 
"Kyoto  Convention,  which  chanced  to  be  held  when  the  city 
was  crowded  with  pilgrims  attending  a  great  Buddhist  festival, 
some  20,000  tracts  specially  prepared  for  the  purpose  were 
distributed  in  connection  with  preaching  meetings  in  the  parks 
or  in  front  of  the  railroad  stations. 

Rev.  F.  E.  Clark,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  founder  of  the  movement,  who 
is  lovingly  known  as  Father  Endeavourer  Clark,  together  with 
his  estimable  and  efficient  wife,  has  visited  Japan  three  times, 


354.  APPENDIX 

once  each  in  1893,  1900,  and  1910,  and  given  great  impetus  to 
the  work  here.  Other  widely  known  Endeavour  visitors  from 
abroad  have  been  Secretary  William  Shaw  of  Boston,  Mass., 
Rev.  Messrs.  G.  H.  Hubbard  and  G.  W.  Hinman,  in  1903  presi- 
dent and  secretary  of  the  China  C.  E.  Union;  Rev.  F.  S.  Patch, 
in  1904  Secretary  for  India,  Burma,  and  Ceylon,  who  held  more 
than  fifty  meetings  in  nine  different  cities ;  and  Rev.  J.  P.  Jones, 
D.D.,  first  president  of  the  India  Union. 

The  work  of  the  Japan  C.  E.  Union  is  sustained  by  an  annual 
grant-in-aid  from  the  World's  Union  of  $1,000,  supplied  mainly 
during  recent  years  by  the  Cleveland,  Ohio,  C.  E.  Union,  and 
by  nearly  as  much  more  raised  in  Japan.  This  does  not  include 
contributions  by  Endeavourers  in  support  of  their  own  local 
or  denominational  enterprises. 

Christian  Endeavourers  are  loyal  supporters  of  the  work  of 
the  Sunday  School  Union,  and  much  of  their  effort  is  directed 
along  this  channel.  They  have  also  opened  work  in  Chosen 
(Korea),  both  among  Japanese  and  Chosenese,  and  are  doing 
much  to  bring  about  a  better  understanding  between  these  two 
peoples  now  politically  united.  It  should  be  added  that  Christian 
Endeavour  methods  have  been  adopted  in  many  churches  that 
are  not  formally  organized  as  C.  E.  Societies. 

The  present  roll  of  the  Japan  C.  E.  Union  is  as  follows: 
Number  of  adult  societies,  125;  number  of  junior  societies,  45; 
number  of  denominations  represented,  10;  total  number  of  mem- 
bers, 3,100  (of  these,  1,100  are  juniors)  ;  new  societies  organ- 
ized last  year,  25. 


APPENDIX  E 

{See  Part  Three,  Chapter  VIII) 

The  Conference  of  Federated  Missions 

The  Conference  of  Federated  Missions,  which  meets  in  Tokyo 
annually,  is  a  delegate  meeting  of  the  missions  which  have 
become  members.  It  originated  in  a  large  conference  of  mis- 
sionaries in  1900  (see  A  Report  of  the  Conference,  page  i960). 
After  the  close  of  the  Conference,  some  missionaries  in  central 
Japan,  for  fear  that  the  proposed  co-operation  plan  might  fail, 
prepared  an  appeal  to  all  the  missionaries,  in  which  was  the 
following  prayer :  "  All  mighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father,  who 
has  purchased  an  universal  church  by  the  precious  blood  of  thy 
son,  we  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  called  us  into  the  same,  and 
made  us  members  of  Christ,  children  of  God,  and  inheritors 


APPENDIX  S55 

of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Look  now,  we  beseech  thee, 
upon  thy  church  and  take  from  it  division  and  strife  and  what- 
soever hinders  Godly  union  and  concord.  Fill  us  with  thy  love, 
and  guide  us  by  thy  Holy  Spirit  that  we  may  attain  to  that 
oneness  for  which  thy  son,  our  Lord  Jesus,  prayed  on  the  night 
of  his  betrayal,  who  with  thee  and  the  Holy  Spirit  liveth  and 
reigneth,  one  God,  world  without  end.     Amen." 

The  diversified  activities  of  the  Federation  can  be  seen  through 
the  list  of  its  standing  committees  which,  beside  the  Executive 
Committee,  consists  of  Committees  on  Christian  Literature, 
Eleemosynary  Work,  Educational  Work,  Statistics,  Industrial 
Welfare,  School  for  Foreign  Children,  Temperance,  Distribution 
of  Forces,  Publicity,  Bible  Study,  Sunday  School  Work,  Summer 
School  for  Missionaries,  International  Peace,  and  Board  of 
Examiners  of  Uniform  Course  of  Study  of  the  Japanese  Lan- 
guage. There  was  great  rejoicing  at  the  annual  meeting  in  1913, 
when  H.  S.  Wainright  was  introduced  as  the  Executive  Secretary 
of  the  Christian  Literature  Committee.  While  his  salary  is 
paid  by  his  own  church,  the  Methodist  Church,  South,  his 
service  will  be  completely  given  to  the  Conference  of  Federated 
Missions  in  the  translations  and  distribution  of  Christian  lit- 
erature. We  are  living  in  the  dawn  of  a  better  day,  when  any 
church  will  thus  graciously  give  a  man  of  talent  for  a  project 
that  counts  for  unity  and  the  extension  of  the  whole  Kingdom 
of  God. 

APPENDIX  F 

{See  Part  Four,  Chapter  II) 

The  Impemal  Oath  (Called  Go  jo  No  Gosein)  Issued  by  the 
Late  Emperor  Mutsuhito  (Posthumus  Name,  Meiji  Tenno) 
ON  April  17,  1869,  the  Year  Following  the  Accession. 

1.  Deliberation  assemblies  shall  be  established  on  a  broad  basis 
in  order  that  governmental  measures  may  be  adopted  in  accord- 
ance with  public  opinion. 

2.  The  concord  of  all  classes  of  society  shall  in  all  emergencies 
of  the  State  be  the  first  aim  of  the  Government. 

3.  Means  shall  be  found  for  the  furtherance  of  the  lawful 
desires  of  all  individuals  without  discrimination  as  to  persons. 

4.  All  purposeless  and  useless  customs  being  discarded,  justice 
and  righteousness  shall  be  the  guide  of  all  actions. 

5.  Knowledge  and  learning  shall  be  sought  after  throughout 
the  whole  world,  in  order  that  the  status  of  the  Empire  of  Japan 
may  be  raised  ever  higher  and  higher. 


356  APPENDIX 

APPENDIX  G 

{See  Part  IV.  Chapter  II) 

Gifts  of  Japanese  Majesties  to  Christian  Efforts 

By  examining  the  gifts  of  the  Japanese  Government  and  the 
Imperial  Household  Department  to  such  Christian  institutions 
as  orphanages,  schools,  and  hospitals,  one  can  easily  see  that 
Christianity  has  already  made  a  good  impression  upon  Japan. 
During  the  last  five  years  the  Home  Department  of  the  Japanese 
Government  has  contributed  to  fifty-three  Christian  institutions 
scattered  throughout  nineteen  provinces  of  Japan.  During  these 
five  years  this  department  of  the  Government  granted  $112,436 
to  benevolences,  of  which  $40,700  went  directly  to  Christian 
institutions,  or  a  little  more  than  a  third  of  all  the  gifts.  Below 
are  given  the  letter  from  the  Home  Department,  the  list  of 
its  benevolences,  and  also  a  list  of  gifts  from  their  Majesties 
the  Emperor  and  Empress.  The  amounts  given  are  in  yen. 
One  yen  equals  fifty  cents. 

February  13,  1913. 
Fred  E.  Hagin,  Esq., 

Dear  Sir:  Referring  to  your  inquiry,  regarding  the  subsidy, 
etc.,  granted  by  our  Imperial  Household  or  the  Government  to 
Christian  works,  we  beg  to  advise  you  that  the  amount  of 
money  granted  as  encouragement  or  subsidy  by  the  Minister 
of  Home  Affairs  to  the  enterprises  of  reformatory  or  relief 
works  is  as  the  accompanying  statement.  As  to  the  grant  from 
our  Imperial  Household  or  those  persons  upon  whom  orders 
have  been  conferred,  we  wish  you  would  inquire  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Imperial  Household. 
We  remain,  dear  sir, 

Yours  respectfully, 

Tomeoka  Kosuke. 

1908  1909  1910  1911  1912 
Hokkaido  Province 

Yenyu  Yagakko 200        100       200 

Tokyo  Province 

Tokyo  Ikuseien   300  500 

Futabaya  Yochien  300  300 

Katei  Gakko 200  500 


500 

500 

650 

300 

400 

500 

500 

500 

600 

APPENDIX  357 

1908  1909  1910  1911  1912 

Bunkaijuku   300       500  500  400  500 

Takinogawa  Gakuen 300        500  500  600      

Kyusheignn  Jizen  Jigyo 500        700  1,000  1,200  1,200 

Ihaien    500        700  700  700  850 

Crittenton  Jiakan   200  150  150  200 

Akasaka  Hospital 500  500  500 

St.  Luke's  Hospital 100  *  

Higashi  Shinanomachi 150  200 

Tokyo  Y.   M.   C.   A.    (Jinji 

Sodanbu) 300 

St.  Hilda  Yoroin 150 

Osaka  Province 

Hakuaisha  600        700  700  700  850 

Osaka  Yohane  Gakuen  200       200  200  200  250 

Osaka  Honai  Fushokukai 700  700  300 

Osaka  Fujin  Home 300  300  450  350 

St.  Barnabas  Hospital 300  350 

Kanagawa  Province 

Sumire  Jo  Gakko  200        300  300  400  500 

Kamakura  Shoni  Hoikuen 400  400  400  450 

Negishi  Kate  Gakuen 200  200  300  350 

Yokohama  Mojin  Gakko 200  200 

Hyogo  Province 

Kobe  Orphanage  300        500  500  500  600 

Kobe  Yoroin    ...  200  200  200 

Kobe  Kummoin ...  ...  100  100 

Nagasaki  Province 

Urakami  Yoikuin 200        . . .  300  300  350 

Okuramura  Jikei-in 200  200  200  350 

Shifukisha  200  100  100  200 

Guma  Province 

Jomo  Koji-in  300       300  300  400  700 

Shidzuoka  Province 

Kamiyama  Fukusei  Byoin..      500        700  700  700  850 

Shidzuoka  Home 300  300  400  500 

Fuji  Ikuji-in 200  200  200  100 

Gifu  Province 

Gifu  Kummo-in 200        200  300  300  300 

Nippon  Ikuji-in 300 

Miyage  Proznnce 

Sendai  Kirisutokyo  Ikuji-in.      300        300  500  700  850 

Ishikawa  Province 

Kanazawa  Ikuji-in  200       300  300  400  600 

*  Article. 


358  APPENDIX 

1908  1909  1910  1911  1912 

Tottori  Province 

Tottori  Ikuji-in  200        200        200        300       450 

Shimane  Province 

Matsuye  Ikuji-in  200        200        200        300        350 

Okayama  Province 
Okayama  Hakuaikai  Seryoin     300       300       400       500       600 

Okayama  Orphanage 1,000     1,250     1,500     1,500     1,500 

Yehime  Province 
Shiritsu  Matsuyama  Yagakko     250       200       200       200       300 

Matsuyama  Dojokan 200       200       200       200       200 

Kumamoto  Province 

Tenshien    200       300       300       200       350 

Hakuai-in 200        300        300        300        350 

Kumamoto  Kwaishun  Byoin     500        700        700        700        850 

Jiro-in  500        700        700        700        850 

Seishin  I-in 300        300        300        350 

Nazarein 200       300 

Shimazaki  Ikuji-in 200        250 

Shiyenkei , .         ...         150 

Miyasaki  Province 
Chausubara  Norinbu  of  Oka- 
yama Orphanage 500        

Kagoshima  Province 

Kagoshima  Mogakko 200        200        100        100 

Gifts  from  their  Majesties,  the  Emperor  and  Empress: 
2,000  yen  to  the  Okayama  Koji-in   (Okayama  Orphanage)  on 
June  30,  1904.     (This  was  granted  on  account  of  its  meritorious 
deeds  since  its  establishment  in  1887.) 

1,000  yen  to  same  on  April  19.  1905.  (This  amount  is  granted 
each  year  for  ten  years  thence  ensuing.) 

10,000  yen  to  Nippon  Kirisutokyo  Seinenkai  (Japan  Y.  M.  C.  A.) 
on  May  6,  1905.  (This  was  granted  in  order  to  facilitate  the 
work  of  relieving  armies  at  the  front  at  the  time  of  the  Russo- 
Japanese  War.) 

1,000  yen  to  Tokyo  Shutsugoku-nin  Hogosho  (or  Tokyo  ex- 
Convict  Home)  on  May  13,  1905.  (This  was  granted  on  account 
of  its  favourable  result  of  working  since  its  establishment  under 
the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Hara  Taneaki.) 

1,000  yen  to  the  Katei  Gakko  (Home  School)  on  October  11, 
1905.  (This  was  established  by  Mr.  Tomeoka  Kosuke,  president 
of  the  school  for  the  influencing  of  bad  youths  and  bringing  up 
teachers  desiring  to  engage  in  v/orks  of  charity.  This  was 
granted  on  account  of  the  good  results  in  the  development  of  the 
charitable  deeds.) 


APPENDIX  S59^ 

700  yen  to  Okasaka  Hakuai  Fushokukai  on  December  4,  1902. 
(This  was  granted  on  account  of  relieving  children  of  poor 
people.) 

From  Her  Majesty  the  Empress:  100,000  yen.  (This  was 
granted  April  20,  1912,  as  a  fund  for  relief  works  of  the  Inter- 
national Red  Cross  Association  in  the  time  of  peace.) 

From  His  Majesty  the  Emperor :  5,000  yen  to  the  Dreadnaught 
Hospital  of  Seamen's  Relief  Association  at  Greenwich,  England, 
on  July  9,  1908.  (This  was  granted  praising  its  philanthropic 
charitable  purport.) 

APPENDIX  H 

A  Brief  Mention  of  Mission  Work  Among  the  Ainu,  the  Loo 
Choo  Islanders,  the  Formosans,  and  the  Koreans 

There  are  about  15,000  Ainu  who  live  in  the  Island  of  Hok- 
kaido, 700  of  whom  have  become  Christians.  Protestant 
mission  work  among  the  Ainu  began  with  Walter  Den- 
ing,  formerly  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society.  He  left 
a  vocabulary  of  925  words  and  a  number  of  idiomatic  phrases. 
In  1877,  John  Bachelor  began  his  work,  which  he  still  continues. 
The  only  other  missionary  at  present  is  Miss  E.  M.  Bryant.  Mr. 
Bachelor  has  translated  the  New  Testament  and  the  Prayer 
Book  and  made  a  book  of  hymns  for  the  Ainu;  but  their  lan- 
guage is  almost  obsolete,  having  been  succeeded  by  Japanese. 

The  Loo  Choo,  or  Ryukyu,  Islands  lie  to  the  southwest  of 
Japan,  extending  as  far  as  Formosa.  The  islands  were  an- 
nexed to  Japan  in  1879.  Japanese  schools  have  been  established 
throughout  the  islands,  wherein  Japanese  is  taught;  but  the 
islanders,  who  number  about  500,000,  continue  to  use  their  own 
language.  Mission  work  at  present  is  conducted  by  the  Baptists 
and  Methodists.  The  latter  have  two  resident  missionaries, 
H.  B.  Schwartz  and  Earl  R.  Bull,  and  their  wives.  There  are 
about  800  Christians,  all  told.  The  principal  centres  are  Naha, 
the  chief  city,  and  at  Shuri,  the  old  capital  close  by,  and  at 
Yontan  Zan. 

The  mission  work  in  Formosa  among  the  3,120,000  Chinese 
is  conducted  by  the  English  and  Canadian  Presbyterians,  who 
have  united  into  one  ecclesiastical  body.  Dr.  James  L.  Maxwell, 
who  reached  Formosa  in  1866,  was  the  first  missionary  from 
England,  and  G.  L.  MacKay,  the  pioneer  from  Canada,  arrived 
in  1872.  The  Canadian  work,  which  covers  the  northern  third 
of  the  island,  has  15  missionaries,  52  preachers,  and  2,125  adult 
church  members.    The  southern  two-thirds  of  the  island  is  worked 


360  APPENDIX 

by  the  English  mission,  which  has  22  missionaries,  66  preachers, 
and  3,880  adult  church  members.  There  are  three  mission  hos- 
pitals and  various  mission  schools  in  the  islands.  Counting  bap- 
tized children,  there  is  a  total  of  11,200  church  members,  or 
a  nominal  Christian  for  every  one  hundred  of  the  population. 
There  are  122,000  aborigines  called  Head-hunters,  only  6,000  of 
whom  have  submitted  to  Japanese  authority.  No  Christian  work 
is  being  done  among  these  wild  mountaineers.  There  are 
110,000  Japanese  residents  in  the  islands,  and  among  them  some 
six  Japanese  pastors  are  working,  who  are  supported  by  the 
Japanese  Christian  bodies  which  sent  them  forth. 

The  first  Protestant  missionary  who  reached  Korea  was  Dr.  H. 
N.  Allen,  an  American  Presbyterian,  who  arrived  at  Seuol  Sep- 
tember 20,  1884,  journeying  by  sea  from  Shanghai  to  Chemulpo 
on  the  steamer  "  Nanzing."  He  was  followed  shortly  by  his  wife 
and  child.  As  there  was  no  foreign  physician  in  the  capital, 
he  was  immediately  appointed  physician  to  the  American  Lega- 
tion and  British  Consulate  General.  The  next  year  a  number 
of  pioneers  reached  Korea.  The  first  missionaries  braved  many 
dangers  and  endured  hardships  in  the  way  of  living  which  have 
all  but  passed  away.  From  the  first,  the  mission  work  in  Korea 
has  been  carried  on  mainly  by  the  Presbyterians  and  Methodists. 

The  number  of  full  church  members  is  72,633,  which  is  one  for 
every  190  of  the  population.  Thus  in  about  one-half  the  time,  four 
times  as  many  have  been  won  in  Korea  as  have  been  won  propor- 
tionately in  Japan  proper.  The  probationers  number  47,439-  The 
missionaries  number  521,  which  is  double  the  proportion  to  Japan 
proper.  The  six  leading  missions  had  11,700  baptisms  during  the 
last  year.  The  average  Sunday  School  attendance  is  109,855,  and 
the  total  offering  of  the  Christians  for  all  purposes  was 
$54,927.  When  the  poverty  of  most  of  the  Korean  Christians 
is  taken  into  consideration,  their  sacrifice  toward  self-support 
is  an  unassailable  proof  of  their  faith  and  devotion  to  Christ. 
There  are  774  parochial  schools  with  18,287  pupils  and  334 
students  in  the  theological  schools.  There  are  a  little  less  than 
300,000  Japanese  in  the  peninsula  of  Korea.  They  are  more 
open  to  Christianity  than  the  Japanese  in  the  mother  country. 
All  told,  there  are  17  Christian  workers  labouring  for  the  salva- 
tion of  the  Japanese  who  have  entered  Korea.  Supplementing 
the  work  of  the  various  missions  in  Korea  is  the  work  of  the 
Salvation  Army  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  About  500  Koreans  reside 
in  Tokyo,  most  of  whom  are  students.  Christian  work  is  carried 
on  among  them  under  the  auspices  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 


MAP  OF  PRINCIPAL  ROUTES  BY  RAILWAYS  IN  JAPAN,  AS  ISSUED  BY  THE  WELCOME  SOCIETY—REPRODUCED   BY  PERMISSION. 


TATISTICS. 


[QS. 

55.  S.  Schools  & 

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Y.P.S.C.E. 
&c. 

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.fin^i 

STATISTICS. 


American  Board  and  Knmlai  Cliurcli 

Amerioan  Bnptist  Foreign  Mission  Pi 

Southern  Baptist  Convention  

American  Cliristian  Convention  

Churches  of  Christ  Mission  in  J:ipan 


Christian  Missionary  Alliance*  

Evangelical  ABflociation 

Gen.  EvanR.  Pro(.  MiBsionarv  Society 

Hepzibnh  Faith  Mission  ....'. 

Evan^-elical  Lutheran  Mission. . 


Einni»h  Lutheran  Uospet  Assoc  in  Jnpnn* 

Japan  Methodist  Church 

Metlioilist  Protestant  Church*    

Japan  Free  Methodist  Mission 

Nihoii  Kirjgnio  Kyokwai. .^ 


Cy  Nippon  Seikokw 


Oriental  Missionary  Society" 

■Salvation  Army  

Seventh  Day  Advenliets* 


Society  of  Friends  Missic 
Hcandinavian  Japan  AIUe 


Kippon  Dojin  Kirlsuto  Kyokwai  (Un 

Nazarone  Cliristian  Church , 

Churches  of  Christ  (Independent)  .... 
'JoTAL  l*i«>Tt:^ANT  Cntmc«Es , 


.C.A.  Chinese  and  Kor 

Tokyo  Y.W.CA.    ...  

Woman's  Christian  Tempei 


(Knesian^OrtYioilox 

Totals    

Canadian  I're.-^h.  Mi 


Ch«Tc\>  (Greek")'     

('Nor'thFori'i'ioVu')'. 


Presb.  Ch.  of  England  Mis 

TotoU   

Presb.  Ch.  in  U.S.  (North)   , 

Presb.  Ch.  in  U.S.  (South)  Mission, 
(N,  J.  Mis 


Rcf.  Ch. 


.  A.  (Diitrh)  J^"'/ 


Iteformed  Church  in  U.S.  Itiernian)  . 
Woman's  Union  Missionary  Society  . 

Totals 

Meth.  Epis.  Ch.  (North)  w.*!!.  mS 
Meth.  Kpis.  Ch.  (South)  


t  Church  of  Canada 


C.M.S.  of  Kyushu  

C.M.S.of  Hokkaido   

CMS.  of  Central  Japan    

S.P.G."and  C-M.S.  of  S.  Tokyo    .. 


Illi 


I         11 


l7B,00(i 
IM.OOO 
14,500 
ICO.OOO 


.4:5,800 
:'.o,ooo 
ll.l.'iO 
.17,100 


13  75,000 
IS  71,192 


15,000 
:iS,000 


s4  n 


270,000 
25,000 
90,000 
2J000 
77,1UU 
00,000 
647,100 
102,500 
140,000 
116,300 
125500 


Japanese 
Workers. 


Chnrch  Membership. 


19.984 
3,1)80 


2,135 
3,880 
6,015 
t4,299 


20,867 
3,S80 


32,246 
98,936 
6,097 


1 1,074 
2,430 


1,280 
2,823 
2,984 
3,7241 


Churclie^  &  Chllrcli  Buildings. 


3^*r. 

^- 

im 

■ 

P 

ki^\ 

5^ 

■-s?> 

a- 

t  15C 

169 

84 

18S 
13 

."2 
10 

? 

35 

23 

1 

5 

1 

,W 

11 

11 

6 

14 

J 

117 

III 

"24 

47 

15 

2! 

(i 

294 

US 

70 

132 

74 

32 

23 

U 
6 

43 

7 

4 

IS 
It 
8 

1) 
17 

~ 

'"8 
T280 

4 

1 

7 

8'31 

70 
19 

Twi 

55 

'?' 

232 

265 

"7 

4 

,82 

12 

16 

It 

20 

8C 

69 

15 

59 

11: 

10 

<    41 
30 

10 

76 

61 

3 

8 

1 

294 

1.=.! 

40 

75 

17 

06 

t; 

T7 

13 

;, 

12 

28 
9 

"2 

32 

13 

^ 

<0S,923 
29,00t 
11,000 


20,400 
.3"6oo 


35,00li 
80,600 


135,059 
60.0UU 


18.476 
I    81E 


1,218 
I, .574 
3,07C 


1,215 
19,658 


8,2-50 
2,420 
•3,196 


Churdi  Finance. 


£di]cationnl  Items. 


1,193 
12',"200 


{318,897 
60,000 


23,340 
31,340 
42,590 


ipft 


45,000 
15,000 
8,500 
40,000 


3,000 
30,000 
7,200 
6,316 
4,17( 


1,.5U0 
109,069 
33,000 


18,788 


ni38,614 
57,302 
51,000 
15,140 

?  8,000 
15,128 


oiib]       1 


1,111 
ni857 

<t 


5,000 
125",000 


1,602,558 

76,000 

5,320 

830,000 


1,300,0001 
17,450 
¥4"o'73 


/.  Koys.atd  Oltls'  roiiidtng  f^cl.ools  s 
h.  le&7  Id  o.schaolsiindlu^lnG  Kliule: 
n.  w  I'airtori.  0.  09  Bonpli'W. 


•tloT)  c>(  f.uth. 

.-.  Include  Ainu 

tS^O)  iird  Luchumjs. 

rf.  OrUieseTin 

a  coOB^Qted. 

t.  ALioaa:-! 

tom  er-dowmenw. 

Oiikko  (St.  Piiu 

i  Tsukijl)  wit 

G-W  +  Btua^nU. 

g.  2  Hoapltib.  1  L 

pet  no3i.ltnl  witb 

a  iom:>le9 

ltd  1  Wspetairy. 

lb.  ri  03  CoofoJslo 

noff.iith.     I.  A 

Irln  Jojlkn{K.ctrri'C 

rtrls'NI:.;htScho.,l). 

m.  Amount  :ibnor 

mally  l.^i^t^  1 

eokuse  of  lyijhoon. 

klndergnrt.>n. 

t.  m  C  Oalaid 

*•.            u.  IlMCUeHo 

me  (=FIorencf  cm 

f-ndtnj  Mlafiion. 

A.  No  r,-t 

msilgutesoneil. 

.',  SnncUflcd  \"'."'.Z'.Z ^W 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Ability  and  responsibility,  our, 

335 
Agriculture,  income  from,  27 
Anarchists  put  to  death,  293 
Ancestor  worship,  54-55 
Anti-Tuberculosis  Society,  204 
Aoyama  Gakuin,  230 
Appendices,  347-360 
Area,  25 
cultivable,  46 


B 


Ballah,  J.  H.,  163 

fifty  years'  service,  269-270 
Baptist  Missions,  213 

Tabernacle,  207 
Baptists  (Southern),  214 
Bathing,  109- no 
Berry,  Dr.  John  C,  175 
Bickel,  Luke  W.,  158 
Bible  in  Japan,  88 

presented   to   Emperor,    164- 
165 

Societies,  statistics  of,  209 
Bibles  issued,  209 
Book  and  Tract  Society,  210 
Books  written  by  missionaries, 

347-348 
Booth,  General,  293 
Bowles,  Gilbert,  9 
Brown,  Frank  L.,  292 

S.  R.,  163 
Buddhism,  65 

awakened  by  missionaries,  70 

imitating  Christianity,  87 

revising  and  using  Christian 
hymns,  305 
Buddhist       temples,       Shinto 


shrines,  and  churches,  sta- 
tistics of,  331 


Canadian    Methodist    Mission, 

218 
Catholic  Missions,  214 
Chamberlain,  B.  H.,  302 
Changes,  33,  Z"? 

in  country  life,  39 

in  government,  39-40 
Children,  31 

of  missionaries,  their  educa- 
tion, 100 
Christian  Convention,  215 

education,  225 

Endeavour  Union,  208 

Orphans'  Home,  342 

forces  at  work,  203 

Literature  Society,  210 

pulpit,  207 
Christians,  prominent,  255 
Christianity    destined    to    pre- 
vail, 278 

influencing  Government,  245- 
246 

meets  the  needs  of  the  peo- 
ple, 170 
Christmas  in  Japan,  41 
Chrysanthemum      party,      the 

Emperor's,  38 
Church    audiences    not    large, 
307 

first  Protestant,  164 

of  Christ  in  Japan,  2yj,  252 

Missionary  Society,  215 

of  England,  214 
Churches,  activity  of,  177 

built  in  U.  S.,  338 
Claims  for  sympathy,  313 


363 


364 


INDEX 


Clawson,  Miss  Bertha,  154 

Clement,  E.  W.,  72 

Climate  of  Japan,  27 

Composite  religion,  302 

Conference  of  three  religions, 
294 

Confucian  Ethics,  53 

Congregational  Church,  251 

Congregationalists,  214 

Constitution,  The,  169 

Consumption,  deaths  by,  74 

Contents,  11 

Conversation  with  young  men, 
185,  188-189 

Converse,  Miss  Clara  A.,  154 

Converts,  198-199 
and  the  churches,  245 
"  Do  they  stick  ?  "  193 
mostly    from    the    educated 

classes,  328 
opposed,  247 
poor  as  a  class,  246 
quality  of,  176 

Covetousness,  342 

Criticism  of  missionaries,  99 

Crusades,  338-339 

Customs  opposite   to  those  in 
the  Occident,  30-31 


Enemy  of  society,  The  great, 

74 
English,  teaching,  145 
Eta,  The,  56 
Etiquette  a  burden,  49 
Evangelical  Association,  216 
Evangelistic  Band,  207,  215 
Evangelists  needed,  119 
Evil  lives  of  some  foreigners, 

308 
"  Evils  of  Christianity,"  292 
Experiences  on  furlough,  128- 

129 


Family,  The,  57 
Famine,  The,  74 
Farmers  and  villagers  courte- 
ous, 50 
in  Japan  and  America,  45-46 
Filial  piety,  58 
Fisher,  Galen  M.,  159 
Fox  god,  The,  65 
Free  Methodists,  216 
Friends'  Mission,  220 
Furloughs,  125 
Furniture,  loi 
Future  of  Christianity,  273 


Davis,  Miss  Ruth  F.,  155 
De  Forest,  John  H.,  148 
Deweese,  B.  C,  9 
Dickinson,  Miss  E.  E.,  72 
Disciples  of  Christ,  215 
Doshisha,  229-230,  291 

E 

Edict  Boards  removed,  266 
Edinburgh  Conference,  239 
Educational  statistics,  228 
Elementary     education,     com- 
pulsory, 30 
Embassy,  The,  71 
Emperor's  death,  295-296 
Emperor-worship,  303 
Empire  and  people,  25 


Garst,  C.  E.,  155 

Gift  to  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  The  Em- 
peror's, 296 

Goble,  J.,  69 

Gospel    received    and    carried, 
The,  41 

Goucher,  Dr.,  quoted,  329 

Government,  The,  29 

Governmental  changes,  336 

Grant,  General,  21 

"  Great  Righteousness,"  296 

Greek  Catholic  Church,  216 

Greene,  Dr.  D.  C,  157 

Growth  of  the  Kingdom,  173- 
174 
promise  of  larger,  179-180 

Gulick,  S.  L.,  72 

Gypsy  moth,  72-73 


INDEX 


365 


H 

Harris,  Townsend,  21 

Heinz,  H.  J.,  292 

Hepburn,  Dr.  J.  C,  72,  163 

Hephzibah  Faith  Mission,  216 

Heroism  of  Japanese,  274 

Hiroshima  Girls'  School,  232 

Homes,  country,  47 

Horses,  47 

Hospitals,  40 

Hotels,  no 

Husbands,    Japan   a    paradise^ 

for,  32 
Hymnal,  Union,  238 


Ideographs,  Chinese,  29 
Idolatry,  61-64 

better  than  materialism,  66 
Imbrie,  William,  156 
Imperial  family  divine,  303 
Imports    from   Japan,   Ameri- 
ca's, 19 
Incomes  and  taxes,  28-29 
Inferior  and  superior,  53 
Interest  on  loans,  48 
"  Invention    of    a    New    Reli- 
gion," 302 
Iwakura  Embassy,  245 

Prince,  71 


Janes,  L.  L.,  165 

Japan  and  the  U.  S.,  316 
our  neighbour,  17 

Japan's  ambition,  284 
need  of  Christ,  319,  323 

Japanese  a   wonderful   people. 
The,  316 
Methodist  Church,  251 
workers,  statistics  of,  314 
law-abiding,  The,  326 
minister,  89 

K 

Karuizawa,  28 

Kawamura,  General,  266-267 


Kidder,  Miss  Mary  E.,  153 
Kindergartens,  232 
Kobe  College,  232 
Korea,  work  in,  242 
Korean  Conspiracy  Trial,  277 


Land,  prices  rising,  28 

Landing  and  leaving,  a  con- 
trast, 267-268 

Language  a  barrier.  The,  90 

Learning  in  Japan,  modern, 
285 

Lepers,  75 

Letters  from  home,  92 

Liberty,  religious,  71,  169 

Liggins,  J.,  163 

Loyalty,  58 

Lutheran  Missions,  216 

M 

Mabie,  H.  W.,  205 
McKim,  Bishop,  156 
Maejima,  Baron,  quoted,  297 
Manufactures  in  their  infancy, 

33 
Marriage  elevated,  177 
Marrow,      Judge,      W.      W., 

quoted,  73 
Meat,  little  eaten,  31 
Medical  Missions,  206 
Meguro  Leper  Hospital,  73 
Meiji  Gakuin,  230 
Men  and  women  and  children 

work  in  the  fields,  47 
Methodist    Episcopal     Church 
(South),  2i7_ 
Episcopal  Mission,  217 
Protestant  Mission,  217 
Middle    Schools    and    Schools 
for  Higher  Education,  150 
Mikado     worship    and    Japan 

worship,  303 
Minerals  in  Japan,  27 
Missionaries,  69 
The  need  of  more,  331 
The  first,  163 


366 


INDEX 


Missionary's  delight  in  books 
from  home,  The,  91-92 

equipment,  337 

experiences,  The,  80-81 

faith,  The,  93 

food  and  dress,  The,  99 

home  life.  The,  97 

home,  The  use  of,  103 

joy.  The,  87 

qualifications,  The,  135-136 

satisfaction.  The,  87 

source  of  power.  The,  82 

statistics,  315,  337 
Mott,  J.  R.'s,  visit,  239 
Mountains  in  Japan,  27 

N 

Nationalistic  temper,  303 
Neesima,  Joseph   Hardy,    165- 

166 
Newspaper,  first  Christian,  178 
New     Testament,     first    book 

translated,  164 
Nicolai,  Archbishop,  159 
Nobles,  Japanese,  56 
Nogi,  General,  267,  318 
"  Non-Existence     of     Christ," 

293 
North  Japan  College,  230 

O 

Okada,  Dr.,  quoted,  227 
Okuma,  Count,  292,  309 
Omi  Mission,  218 
Opposition  to  missions,  167 
Oriental     Missionary    Society, 

218 
Orient  changing,  320 
Osaka,  26 

Oyama,  General,  267 
Ozaki,  Mayor,  quoted,  235 


Palmore  Institute,  146 
Patience,  need  of,  118 
Patriotism,  325 
Peace  Forum,  205 

Society,  205 
Peace,  The  way  to,  113 


People  all  at  work,  49 
Perry,  Commodore,  20 
Persecution,  193-195 
Persimmon,  72 
Peter  the  Hermit,  339 
Policemen,  147 
Population,  26 
Post-office  in  villages,  48 
Pray  for  Japan,  320 
Preaching  while  touring,  ill 
Preface,  7 

Prejudice  removed,  291 
Presbyterian  Mission,  219 

Mission  (Southern),  219 
Priests  won  to  Christ,  194,  197 
Problems  and  difficulties,  301 
Products,  farm,  46 
Public  opinion,  276 
Publications,    religious    statis- 
tics of,   179 
Purity  Association,  204 

R 

Railways,      automobiles      and 

electric  cars,  25,  38 
Reaching  Japan,  126 
Real  Japan,  The,  17 
Reformed      Church      Mission 

(Dutch),  219 
Church   Mission    (German), 

219 
Rice,  27 
Riis,  J.  A.,  343 
Root  -  Takahira       Agreement, 

The,  58 


St.  Luke's  Hospital,  206 
Salvation  Army,  205 
Samurai,  56 
Schneder,  D.  B.,  158 
Schools  a  necessity,  225 

for  boys,  229 
Secret  believers,  177 
Self-support,  249 
Sendai    Christian    Orphanage, 

73 

Sentiment  toward  Christianity 
changing,  174 


INDEX 


367 


Separation    from    loved    ones, 

119 
Servants,  Japanese,  102 
Seventh-Day  Adventists,  220 
Seven  Wonders  of  the  World, 

335 
Seward,  W.  H.,  21 
Ships,  equipment  of,  42 
Shinran  celebration,  318-319 
Shintoism,  302 
Shinto  shrines,  301 
Skeptical  literature,  306 
Slums,  work  in,  149 
Smith,  Geo.  T.,  155 
Social  evil,  75 

system,  53 
Socialism,  40 

Society     for     Prevention     of 
Cruelty  to  Animals,  204 

for  propagating  the  Gospel, 
220 

divisions  of,  56 
Soldiers,  53 
Soper,  Julius,  157,  270 
Speed,  38 

Standing   Committees   of    Co- 
operating Missions,  237 
Statistics,  165 
Strategic  importance  of  Japan, 

283 
Suicides,  326 
Sunday,  first  observed,  168 

observed  increasingly,  178 
Sunday-school,  The,  145 

songs,  69-70 

work,  208 
Superstition,  65 


Tourists,  109 

Country         districts        hardly 

touched  by  the  Gospel,  330 
Tract,  The  first,  164 
Travel  and  residence,  freedom 

of,  107 
Trials,  117 
Typhoons,  28 

U 

Union  in  service,  240 
United  Brethren  Mission,  220 
United  States  and  Canada,  341 

feeling  toward,  19-20 
Unity  and  co-operation,  235 
Universalists'  Mission,  221 
University,  The  Imperial,  72 

V 

Verbeck,  G.  F.,  71,  72,  163 
Victories  over  Russia,  21,  22, 

284,  324 
Villages  and  country,  46 

W 

War,  wild  rumours  of,  316-317 
White  Cross  Society,  204 
Winning  souls,  183 
Wireless  outfit  on  ships,  41-42 
Woman,  her  status,  71 
Woman's   Temperance  Union, 

240 
Work   must  be   completed   by 
Orientals,  286 

scarcely  begun,  314 
World's       Student      Christian 
Federation,  242 

S.  S.  Commission,  292 


Taxes,  28 

Temperance  work,  203-204 
Temples,  61,  109 
Tokyo,  26 

changes  in,  38 
District,  work  in,  213 
Touring,  143-144 


Yotsuya  Mission,  221 
Young  Woman's  Christian  As- 
sociation, 240 


Zoshigaya  Mission,  221 


PRINTED  IN   THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


BW8520.H14 
The  cross  in  Japan; 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00018  9060 


DATE  DUE 

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,*-— 

IZ 

-i!0iss^^immt^ 

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Demco,  Inc.  38-293 


